The following article was published by My Sinchew

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou enjoys a narrow lead over his opponents in his bid for re-election, poll results showed Tuesday, the last day surveys can be released ahead of the January 14 vote.

Ma, elected in 2008 on a platform of boosting the economy, is running for a second and final four-year term against Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and independent James Soong.

Tsai is vying to become Taiwan's first female president while political veteran Soong is mounting a comeback following his narrow defeat in the 2000 presidential election.

Forty-four percent of 2,011 people interviewed by the United Daily News said they would vote for Ma, against Tsai's 36 percent and Soong's seven percent, although 13 percent were still undecided.

Ma, of the China-friendly Kuomintang, was boosted by support from female and middle-aged voters, with a lead of more than 10 percentage points in both categories, the newspaper said.

A TVBS news channel poll showed similar results, as Ma maintained a lead of eight percentage points with 45 percent over Tsai's 37 percent while Soong had six percent.

Non-partisan voters favoured Ma with 35 percent, compared with Tsai's 26 percent, according to the TVBS poll of 1,111 people.

However, Ma and Tsai were much closer in a survey issued by the Taipei-based China Times, with 39.5 percent and 36.5 percent, respectively, just on the border of the margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Soong had 5.8 percent of support while 18.2 percent were still undecided in the poll of 1,104 eligible voters.

Soong is considered unlikely to win without the backing of a major political party but observers said that as a former heavyweight in the ruling party he could potentially cost Ma enough votes to lose the election.

Taiwan polls issued close to presidential elections have a history of predicting the outcomes relatively accurately.In 2008, opinion polls indicated that Ma enjoyed up to a 20-point advance over DPP candidate Frank Hsieh, and he went on to win the election by almost 17 percentage points.

In 2004, then president Chen Shui-bian and opposition candidate Lien Chan were neck-and-neck in pre-election polls and Chen won by less than one percentage point after a disputed election-eve shooting.