Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Seok-yeol Both Decline While Ahn Cheol-soo Rises Again... Surpasses 15%

Impact of Lee Jae-myung's Son's Gambling and Yoon Seok-yeol Spouse's Career Allegations
Ahn Cheol-soo Rises... Advantage Over Yoon Seok-yeol if Unified

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] Amid various controversies last month involving family issues and internal party conflicts affecting the presidential candidates of both ruling and opposition parties, a public opinion poll revealed that Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People’s Party, has a support rate exceeding 15%. The increase in Ahn’s support rate was higher than the combined decrease in support rates of Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, and Yoon Seok-youl, the People Power Party presidential candidate.

On the 9th, the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) conducted a regular weekly survey from the 7th to 8th targeting 1,001 people nationwide aged 18 and older. When asked about 'support for the next presidential candidate,' Lee received 37.6%, Yoon 35.2%, and Ahn 15.1%.

Sim Sang-jung, the Justice Party presidential candidate, received 2.3%, and Kim Dong-yeon, the New Wave presidential candidate, received 0.4%. 'Other candidates' accounted for 2.6%, and undecided voters were 6.8% (no preferred candidate 5.8%, don’t know 1.0%).

Compared to last week’s survey, Lee’s support dropped by 3.4 percentage points, and Yoon’s by 1.9 percentage points. The gap between Lee and Yoon’s support rates was 2.5 percentage points, within the margin of error (sampling error ±3.1 percentage points at 95% confidence level), narrowing by 1.5 percentage points from last week. Meanwhile, Ahn’s support rose by 5.9 percentage points.

Ahn showed an advantage within the margin of error even in the scenario of unifying candidates with Yoon. When asked about the 'most suitable candidate for unification of opposition candidates,' Ahn received 37.3%, and Yoon 35.5%, a gap of 1.8 percentage points. Responses favoring 'unification with other candidates' were 11%, and 'don’t know' responses were 16.1%.

This survey was conducted using a wireless ARS automated response method (100% wireless), with a response rate of 8.7%. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For more details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission and the KSOI website.