Poll: Support for Moon Jae-in surges to 31%, over Ban Ki-moon’s 20%

Posted on : 2017-01-15 13:03 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Results also show significant increase in support over the past three years for lowering voting age
Support by presidential candidates
Support by presidential candidates

A poll by Gallup Korea tracking support for presidential frontrunners in the second week of January found that Moon Jae-in, former leader of the opposition Minjoo Party, remained ahead of former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and had increased his lead to more than 10 percentage points.

Conducted between Jan. 10 and 12 and released on Jan. 13, the Gallup poll asked respondents who they most wanted to be the next president, with 31% choosing Moon Jae-in, 20% choosing Ban Ki-moon and 12% choosing Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung. Less popular choices were former People’s Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo with 7%, South Chungcheong Province Governor Ahn Hee-jung with 6%, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn with 5%, Righteous Party lawmaker Yoo Seong-min with 3% and former lawmaker Sohn Hak-gyu with 2%.

Gallup asks around 1,000 adults around the country who they think should be the next political leader and then includes the top eight figures in a poll on approval ratings a week later. Prime Minister and acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn was a new addition to this poll, replacing Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon.

Compared with the poll carried out between Dec. 6 and 8 of last year, Moon had the largest increase in approval, up 11 percentage points, while Lee’s rating dropped by 6 percentage points and Ban’s remained the same.

When the poll postulated a three-way race between Moon, Ban and Ahn Cheol-soo, Moon received 44% of support, with Ban taking 30% and Ahn taking 14%. In a hypothetical head-to-head between Moon and Ban, Moon had 53% of support, while Ban had 37%. Gallup noted that the timing of the poll prevented it from reflecting the effect of Ban’s return to South Korea on the evening of Jan. 12.

Respondents were sharply divided on a proposal to lower the voting age (currently 19), which has become a major political issue, with 49% in favor and 48% opposed. But this suggests that support for lowering the voting age has surged in the three years since Gallup posed the same question in Feb. 2014, when 35% were in favor and 56% opposed.

The survey was conducted through telephone interviews by researchers on 1,007 adults around the country, with a margin of error of ±3.1% and a reliability level of 95%.

By Seok Jin-hwan, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Related stories

Most viewed articles