Ocean currents assist Taoyuan! Huang Shijie closely pursues Zhang Shanzheng, and the difference among certain voters is only 4.3 percentage points

DPP Taoyuan mayoral candidate Huang Shijie (middle) previously gathered with DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang (front 1 from right) and Executive Yuan Secretary-General Zhang Dunhan (front left 2nd) at the Zhongli Tourist Night Market to ask fellow villagers to "turn over Taoyuan and Taipei." (File photo, taken by reporter Li Rongping)

With only 22 days left before voting, the Taoyuan mayoral race is heating up. The latest poll from the Times Poll Center shows that KMT candidate Zhang Shanzheng received 35% support, followed by DPP candidate Huang Shijie with 28%, with a gap of 7 percentage points between the two sides. Among voters who said they would definitely vote, Zhang Shanzheng’s support was 36.8%, while Huang Shijie’s was 32.5%, and the gap narrowed to 4.3 percentage points. Green campaign auxiliaries assessed that with the changes in the grassroots situation and the "ocean current" spillover effect of the Democratic Progressive Party's Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang, the election situation between the blue and green parties has become increasingly tense.

According to the latest poll conducted by the Times Poll Center from the 2nd to the 4th of this month, Zhang Shanzheng was supported by 35% of Taoyuan citizens, followed by DPP candidate Huang Shijie with 28%. 4.5% did not vote or cast invalid votes, and 32.5% were undecided and did not answer. Further observation shows that among the voters who will definitely vote, Zhang Shanzheng received 36.8% support, Huang Shijie received 32.5% favor, with only a 4.3% gap, and 30.7% were undecided or unanswered.

Looking at the Taoyuan mayoral election, the Kuomintang nominated the current mayor Zhang Shanzheng to run for re-election, and the Democratic Progressive Party recruited Huang Shijie, the former Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, in an effort to plant its flag in Taoyuan again. Election auxiliaries pointed out that in the early days of the election, Zhang Shanzheng had a certain lead, but the recent changes in the grassroots situation, coupled with the "ocean current" momentum driven by Shen Boyang in Taipei City, added support to the green camp election, allowing Huang Shijie to catch up, and the gap between the two sides in Taoyuan City gradually narrowed.

This person assessed that the election campaign has entered the final stage. Zhang Shanzheng was previously questioned by the outside world for "voting by lying down", but now he finally started sweeping the streets in the market to solicit votes, showing that the atmosphere of the election campaign is gradually tightening. Huang Shijie continued to catch up, sweeping the streets with the motorcade and soliciting votes in the market in parallel, striving to narrow the gap in the final stage. Who will win in the Taoyuan battle may not be known until the polling day.

This poll was conducted by the Times Poll Center from November 2 to 4. The survey area was Taoyuan City. It targeted people who were registered in Taoyuan City and were over 20 years old. Telephone interviews were conducted, with a sample size of 1,072 people. The survey adopted a stratified random sampling method, with the administrative district as the stratified unit and the residential telephone directory as the sampling base to establish a telephone number database. The last two digits of the extracted telephone numbers were randomized to improve coverage and sample representativeness. The survey data is statistically weighted according to the gender, age and administrative district structure of Taoyuan City's population over 20 years old. At a 95% confidence level, the sampling error is within plus or minus 3.0 percentage points.