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TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S opposition leader Ma Ying Jeou has widened his lead in the race for the presidency, following the landslide win of his Kuomintang party in weekend legislative elections, polls showed on Monday.
Mr Ma earned 51.4 per cent of voter support to just 19.9 per cent for rival Frank Hsieh of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), according to a survey conducted on Sunday by the Taipei-based China Times.
The rest of 1,004 people questioned were undecided.
In another poll carried out by the United Daily News on Sunday, 60 per cent of those questioned said they would vote for Mr Ma, while support for Mr Hsieh dropped to a record low of 18 per cent, with the rest undecided.
Mr Ma and Mr Hsieh are vying to succeed President Chen Shui Bian in the March 22 polls. Mr Chen's second and last term will end in May.
The KMT dealt a humiliating blow to Mr Chen's DPP over the weekend, winning 81 of 113 seats in the new parliament to just 27 for the DPP. The KMT's smaller allies took the remaining five seats.
In the China Times survey, 25.5 per cent said the DPP's weak leadership led to its weekend defeat, 16.5 per cent pointed to corruption scandals and 15.2 per cent said the sluggish economy was to blame.
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