hankyoreh

Former Gyeonggi Province governor Sohn Hak-kyu came in first in a mobile phone poll that will help determine the presidential candidate for the pro-government party, election officials said Tuesday.

Of the 30,000 people who took part in the poll, Sohn won 36.5

percent or 7,649 of the total. Chung Dong-young, a former Unification Minister and current front-runner, came in second with 7,004 votes, followed by Lee Hae-chan, who had been prime minister under incumbent President Roh Moo-hyun.

A spokesman for Sohn said the results of the latest poll shows the public's belief that the former governor is best suited to represent the United New Democratic Party in the presidential election slated for December. Officials from Chung's camp, however, said there was only a 3 percentage point difference, and the mobile poll cannot change the eventual outcome of the race. The candidate for the liberal party will be selected on Oct. 15.

Election officials at the United New Democratic Party said despite Sohn's strong showing, Chung still leads after eight rounds of preliminary votes cast so far.

The former prime minister has so far secured 58,129 votes, compared to 45,500 for Sohn and 35,926 for Lee.

The winner of the preliminary will take on Lee Myung-bak of the conservative Grand National Party. The former mayor of Seoul is the clear favorite at the polls with an approval rating hovering at 50 percent.

SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Yonhap)