A new poll suggests the gap between the presidential candidates fielded by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has shrunk to a mere 0.61 percentage points, well within the margin of error.

According to the poll conducted by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) from Monday to Wednesday, if President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) all participate in January’s presidential election, Ma would get 33.58 percent of the vote, Tsai 32.97 percent and Soong 11.17 percent.