2026 Elections: Shen rises to 50.3 percent in Taipei polling

SHIFTING VIEWS: The proportion of respondents who said the DPP should be given a chance to govern the city rose to 48.7% , compared with 31.7% for the KMT

• By Chen Yun, Fion Khan and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writers

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Support for Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) in the Taipei mayoral race rose to 50.3 percent, while that of Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) fell to 33.3 percent, a Taipei Trust in Democracy Association poll released yesterday showed.

Shen rose 9.8 percentage points from 40.5 percent last month in the poll, while Chiang, of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), was polling down 8.4 percentage points from 41.7 percent last month.

Shen has gone from trailing by 1.2 percentage points to leading by 17 percentage points in a month, the poll showed.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator and Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen looks at architectural models during a tour at the “Urban Sequences: Taipei Architecture Vision 2030” exhibition in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times

Polls are on paper, but the election is won or lost by votes, Shen told reporters before attending a news conference for the International Beauty Industry Skills Competition.

Public opinion can shift quickly ahead of the Nov. 28 election, he said, adding that his primary focus remains on promoting policies that resonate with voters rather than tracking approval ratings.

Before appearing on a political talk show, Chiang told reporters that his team uses every poll for reference, and vowed to continue to work diligently and let his policies and accomplishments speak for themselves.

Residents surround Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, center, with green onions as he visits a temporary market in the city’s Beitou District yesterday. He was in the area for a groundbreaking ceremony for the reconstruction of the original Beitou Market building.

Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

The most important factor in the election is showing how the city government’s achievements over the past four years have improved people’s lives, Chiang said.

Of the poll respondents, 56.6 percent said they thought Shen would make a suitable mayor, while 27.5 percent said he was unsuitable.

By contrast, 41.2 percent considered Chiang suitable for the job, while 46.8 percent said he was unsuitable.

The shifts in the two candidates’ suitability ratings also reflected changing preferences over which party should govern the city, the poll showed.

The proportion of respondents who said that the DPP should be given a chance to govern Taipei rose to 48.7 percent, while those who wanted the KMT to continue running the city fell to 31.7 percent, closely matching the respective support ratings for the two candidates.

The survey, designed and analyzed by pollster Tai Li-an (戴立安), interviewed 1,075 Taipei residents aged 20 or older from Wednesday to Friday last week, with 753 interviewed by landline and 322 by cellphone. It had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.