[AK Poll] Democratic Party's Third Candidate No.1 Jeong Seyeon

Balanced Preferences Between Progressives and Conservatives
Followed by Chu Mi-ae, Im Jong-seok, Kim Boo-kyum, Lee Kwang-jae, Lee In-young

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun is delivering a speech at the 'Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters Meeting for COVID-19 Response.' Photo by Jang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] It has been revealed that Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun is gaining high preference as the ‘third Democratic Party presidential candidate’ aside from Lee Nak-yeon, leader of the Democratic Party, and Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province. Prime Minister Chung is analyzed to have relatively high preference compared to other candidates not only in the Democratic Party strongholds such as Honam and the metropolitan area but also in regions with strong conservative tendencies and among supporters of conservative parties.

When asked, “If there is a person most likely to emerge as the third Democratic Party presidential candidate besides Leader Lee and Governor Lee, who do you think it is?” 17% chose Prime Minister Chung. Following him were former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae (12.1%), former Presidential Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok (7.4%), former Minister of the Interior and Safety Kim Boo-kyum (6.4%), Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Kwang-jae (2.3%), and Minister of Unification Lee In-young (2%) in that order.

By age group, except for 18-29 year-olds where 15.1% supported former Minister Choo, Prime Minister Chung’s preference was higher in all other age groups. Among supporters of conservative parties People Power Party and People Party, Prime Minister Chung was the most preferred Democratic candidate with 16.9% and 22.5% respectively.

However, in the preference of Democratic Party supporters, who have significant influence in the presidential primary process, Prime Minister Chung (20.8%) and former Minister Choo (19.4%) were in a “neck-and-neck” race. They were followed by former Chief of Staff Im (13.2%), former Minister Kim (4.1%), Minister Lee (2.8%), and lawmaker Lee (0.9%). Among all respondents, 33.7% answered that they had no preferred candidate, and 9.4% responded with “don’t know/no answer.”

This survey was conducted on June 16-17 targeting voters aged 18 and over nationwide, with an overall response rate of 6.5%, totaling 1,009 respondents. The survey method was 100% mobile phone virtual number wireless ARS. The sample was extracted with weighted values by gender, age, and region based on the resident registration population as of the end of December 2020 from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (cell weighting). The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For detailed survey information, refer to the WinG Korea Consulting website or the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.