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Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl continues to receive growing support in polls on the public’s preference for the next South Korean president.

Realmeter conducted a survey from Monday to Friday of preferences for the next presidential election, with 2,547 adults aged 18 and older nationwide asked about 15 major politicians representing the ruling and opposition parties. Performed at the request of OhmyNews, the survey had a margin of error of ±1.9 percentage points and a 95% confidence level.

According to results announced Monday, Yoon had a support rating of 34.4%, up by 18.9 percentage points from another survey conducted by the same organization last month.

Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung recorded a support rating of 21.4%, down 2.2 percentage points from last month, while former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yon’s support rating was down 3.6 percentage points to 11.9%.

Compared with last month’s survey, Yoon enjoyed major boosts of support in the Daegu/North Gyeongsang Province region (a rise of 25.5 percentage points), the Daejeon/Sejong/Chungcheong Province region (23.7 percentage points) and Seoul (22.3 percentage points). His support rose across all age groups, including bumps of 27.1 percentage points among respondents in their 60s and 23.3 percentage points among those in their 50s.

In contrast, Lee Jae-myung’s support waned in the Incheon/Gyeonggi Province area (down 4.3 percentage points) and Seoul (4.2 percentage points). Lee Nak-yon also experienced declines in support in the Busan/Ulsan/South Gyeongsang Province region (6.3 percentage points) and Daegu/North Gyeongsang (5.1 percentage points), as well as a drop among respondents identifying as politically progressive (5.6 percentage points).

Oh Se-hoon of the People Power Party (PPP), who was recently selected as the opposition’s final candidate in the by-election for Seoul mayor, climbed from sixth place to a tie for fourth with a support rating of 4.5%, up by 1.3 percentage points. Also in fourth place with 4.5% was independent Hong Joon-pyo, whose rating was down by 2.1 percentage points from last month.

Next in line was People’s Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo with 3.8%, former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae with 2.5%, former National assembly member Yoo Seong-min with 2.0%, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyung with 1.7%, former Justice Party leader Sim Sang-jung with 1.5%, former Presidential Chief of Staff Lim Jong-seok with 1.5%, Jeju Gov. Won Hee-ryong with 1.4% and former National Assembly member Na Kyung-won with 1.1%. Democratic Party lawmaker Park Yong-jin, a recent addition to the lineup, scored 0.7%.

Total support for candidates representing the conservative/opposition side (Yoon, Oh, Hong, Ahn, Yoo, Won and Na) was up by 12.6 percentage points to 51.7%, while support for candidates representing the progressive/ruling party side (Lee Jae-myung, Lee Nak-yon, Choo, Chung, Sim, Lim and Park) was down by 8.5 percentage points to 41.3%. With a gap of 10.4 percentage points between them, the conservative/opposition side regained the lead for the first time in three months.

The survey had a response rate of 6.5%.

More details can be found on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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