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Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung appears on the OBS news commentary program “Behind the Scenes.” OBS broadcast Lee’s appearance live on YouTube on Feb. 8 prior to its official televised airing on Feb. 12. (OBS screenshot)

Lee Jae-myung, governor of South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province, held firm in first place among contenders in next year’s South Korean presidential election in various polls released during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Lee’s rivals — including Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yon, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, and former Blue House Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok — also appeared focused on reining in his lead with their messaging.

On Feb. 13, findings were announced from a survey performed by polling organization Ipsos at the request of the SBS network. The results showed Lee Jae-myung in first place, with 28.6% of respondents answering that they planned to vote for him in next year’s presidential election.

The next highest-scoring potential candidates, Lee Nak-yon (13.7%) and Prosecutor General Youn Seok-youl (13.5%), were both well outside of the margin of error, while Chung was named by 1.8% of respondents.

Among those planning to support the ruling Democratic Party, 42.8% said they would vote for Lee Jae-myung, while 27.9% said they would vote for Lee Nak-yon. A total of 1,002 people were surveyed for the poll, which was conducted over a four-day period from Feb. 6 to 9.

Another poll performed by Hangil Research on Feb. 6-8 at the request of Kuki News showed Lee Jae-myung in first place with 27.3%, followed by Lee Nak-yon with 13.0% and Chung with 3.7%.

The findings showed Lee Jae-myung maintaining a lead of more than 10 percentage points over Lee Nak-yon in polls conducted around the Lunar New Year holiday.

But Lee Jae-myung’s support has not risen above 30%, and with the presidential race yet to begin in earnest and the Democratic Party’s base weakening, the general view among politicians is that it’s too soon to call this a “runaway lead.”

In the past, polling front-runners have often enjoyed support ratings of over 30% more than a year ahead of the election based on their popular appeal, only to suffer steep declines and eventually drop out once the real presidential race began. The story changes, however, if a potential candidate can maintain consistent support in the 30-40% range.

With the Lunar New Year holiday now over, Lee’s rivals appear poised to focus on preventing him from building an overwhelming lead. During the holiday, Lee Nak-yon took aim at his ideas for a basic income, an integral part of the Gyeonggi governor’s brand that the Democratic Party leader said was “not being done anywhere outside of Alaska.”

Chung similarly said that there is “no country on earth that has successfully implemented” such a plan.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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