Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's public approval has dropped to a record low, a newspaper reported Friday.
According to the telephone survey of 867 people by the United Daily News, only 27 percent are satisfied with Ma's performance, down from 66 percent when he came to power in 2008.
Fifty-three percent were unhappy with his performance, blaming him for lacking guts, economic woes, rising commodity prices and being too soft in dealing with China, the News said.
Ma will have served half of his four-year term by May 20 and is up for re-election in 2012.
The poll found that if Taiwan held a presidential election now, Ma would lose to Su Tseng-chang, a former premier and currently a leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), by 38 percent to 29%.
Ma would run in a dead heat against DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ying-wen, the paper said.
In 2008, Ma won a landslide presidential election as he promised to improve ties with China and stop the island's economic downturn.
After 22 months in office, he has improved ties with China but has not solved all the economic problems, with the jobless rate at 5.68%.
The pro-independence DPP, which lost to Ma's Chinese Nationalist Party in the 2008 election, accuses Ma of sacrificing Taiwan's interests in seeking peace with China.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314806,taiwan-presidents-approval-drops-to-record-low.html
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