Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate (left), Yoon Seok-youl, the People Power Party presidential candidate (right) [Photo by Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, and Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, continue to show a neck-and-neck race within the margin of error in the next presidential election polls. Both candidates’ support bases are showing signs of strengthening consolidation.
A poll conducted by TBS Broadcasting, commissioned to the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI), surveyed 1,004 adults aged 18 and over nationwide over two days from the 10th to the 11th using an automated response system (ARS). The results showed Yoon’s support rate at 42%, and Lee’s at 40.6%, maintaining a close race with a 1.4 percentage point difference. Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People’s Party, had a support rate of 2.8%, Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party had 2.6%, and Kim Dong-yeon, the preparatory committee chairman of the New Wave party, had 1.2%.
Yoon’s support increased by 0.8 percentage points, and Lee’s by 2.7 percentage points. As a result, the gap between the two candidates narrowed from 3.3 percentage points in the previous survey (conducted from the 3rd to the 4th) to 1.4 percentage points. This marks the fourth consecutive week that the TBS-KSOI poll shows a close race within the margin of error between the two candidates.
What draws attention is the increasing proportion of respondents who say they will continue to support their current candidate. The proportion of respondents who intend to keep supporting their current candidate rose by 5.7% from last week’s survey to 79%. Those who said they might change their choice accounted for 18.2%. Among the supporters of each presidential candidate, the proportion of those who will continue to support Lee increased by 3.2 percentage points from last week to 89.3%. Similarly, the proportion of those who will continue to support Yoon rose by 2.5 percentage points to 86.8%.
The gap between respondents narrowed when asked about the nature of the next presidential election, whether it is for regime continuation or regime change. Those agreeing with regime continuation accounted for 39.5%, while those demanding regime change were 49.6%. The gap between the two responses was 10.1 percentage points, narrowing by 4.4 percentage points compared to last week’s survey.
The margin of error for this poll is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and the response rate was 7.4%. For more details, please refer to the website of the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
