
Former Premier William Lai has spoken against the idea of polling cell phone users as part of his party’s upcoming presidential primary.
Lai is set to face off against President Tsai Ing-wen in a contest for the Democratic Progressive Party’s 2020 presidential nomination. Rather than holding a vote, the party settles its primary contests based on the results of telephone polling.
In a radio interview Tuesday, Lai said that the rules for the party’s telephone polls are already set, and that they only include landline users. In addition, he said there is no scientific evidence that cell phone polls accurately reflect public opinion. Lai also said that including cell phone users will make it easier to distort the results of polling with fake responses.
At the same time, however, Lai said he recognizes that many young people use cell phones. He said there are ways of addressing the underrepresentation of young voters that could result if cell phone numbers aren’t included in polling.