The latest poll released by Global Views magazine yesterday showed that 59.6 percent of respondents were not satisfied with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) performance, while 42.2 percent said they had reservations about the new Cabinet’s performance under Ma’s leadership.

Meanwhile, 42.9 percent of respondents said they have confidence in the new Cabinet, while Ma’s approval rate rose 5.3 percent last month to 28.2 percent, the poll by the magazine’s Survey Research Center showed.

The poll conducted by the magazine last month found that about 80 percent of respondents said the Ma administration had done a poor job in handling the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot, and a majority said a Cabinet reshuffle was necessary.

Ma appointed Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to form the new Cabinet after former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) announced his Cabinet would resign on Sept. 7.

Compared with a similar poll last May, which found that more than 64 percent of the respondents said they had confidence in Liu and his Cabinet, the new Cabinet led by Wu suffered from a lack of public confidence.

The pollster said the poll results showed that the public had lower expectations for the new government.

A total of 44.8 percent of the respondents said they were confident about Ma’s performance, while 41.6 percent said they have no confidence in the president.

On cross-strait cooperation, 65.9 percent of the respondents said they pay close attention to the proposed signing of an economic cooperation pact, while 55.8 percent said closer cross-strait economic exchange would help revive the economy in Taiwan.

More than 56 percent of respondents said they were not satisfied with the performance of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) legislators.

The poll was conducted between Monday and Wednesday, with 1,003 residents above 20 years old interviewed.

Source: Taipei Times 2009/09/19

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