Taiwan president's poll rating rise slightly: Paper

TAIPEI, June 19: Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's popularity rating has risen slightly since May, a poll showed today, providing him a crumb of comfort amid relentless pressure from the opposition for his ouster over financial scandals.

The poll by the China Times and a television station found that 28 percent of people were satisfied with Chen's performance as president, up from 21 percent in May, when his son-in-law was detained in relation to insider trading allegations.

The percentage of respondents dissatisfied with Chen dropped five percentage points to 56 percent from 61 percent over the same period, the telephone poll of about 1,000 adults showed.

Arguing that Chen is not fit to rule, the Nationalist Party and its allies, known as the ''blue camp'', launched a so-called ''recall'' motion in parliament last week that would authorise a referendum on whether or not Chen should remain in office.

Chen has until the end of Tuesday to formally respond to the motion. Chen's Democratic Progressive Party and its allies are called the ''green camp''.

''Facing the blue camp's recall action, the greens pointed their muzzles in the same direction, calling it a 'political competition' and a 'power grab', thereby not only successfully diverting focus from the scandals but also forming a consensus among Chen supporters,'' the newspaper said.

According to the poll, 40 percent opposed the ''recall'' motion, up from 34 percent in the May poll, while 42 percent supported it.

Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, has been accused of accepting millions of Taiwan dollars of department store gift vouchers and his son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming, has been detained since late May on suspicion of insider trading.

Both have denied any wrongdoing.

Despite Chen's popularity upturn, people's impression of his family has slipped, the poll showed. Some 29 percent had a favourable impression of the first family, the same as in a mid-May poll, while 57 percent had an unfavourable impression, up from 52 percent.

Reuters