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Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung and former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl

Popular support for former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl as a candidate in next year’s presidential election fell by four percentage points in the space of a week.

Analysts are attributing the slide to controversy surrounding a so-called “X-file” containing allegations connected to Yoon.

From Monday to Wednesday, a national barometer survey on the suitability of potential presidential candidates was performed on 1,006 voters nationwide by Embrain Public, KSTAT Research, Korea Research International, and Hankook Research.

The results — which had a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points — showed Yoon with 20% support, putting him second place within the margin of error behind Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung (27%).

A survey a week earlier had Yoon hot on Lee’s heels by a margin of 24% to 25%. The latest results showed Yoon slipping by four percentage points and Lee gaining two percentage points, widening the gap between them to seven points.

Coming in third was Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yon with 7%, followed by a tie between People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo and People’s Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo with 3% each. Former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae each drew 2%.

Assessments of President Moon Jae-in’s governance were 45% positive — an increase of two percentage points from the previous week — and 49% negative. But respondents showed a stronger preference for electing a non-Democratic Party president to “hold the administration to account,” with 47% of them selecting that response compared with 41% favoring “stability in governance.”

A presidential candidate preference survey of 2,014 voters nationwide conducted on Monday and Tuesday by Realmeter at the request of OhmyNews (95% confidence level, 2.2 margin of error) showed Yoon leading with 32.3% support, although the rate was down by 2.8 percentage points from two weeks earlier.

A closer examination showed large slides in support among key support bases: 14.3 percentage points in the Daegu/North Gyeongsang Province region (51.2% to 36.9%), 7.5 in the Chungcheong Region (37.9% to 30.4%), and 6.2 among respondents in their 70s and older (37.9% to 30.4%).

“The controversy surrounding the ‘X-file’ seems to have had a negative impact on Yoon’s support ratings,” Realmeter said.

By Song Chae Kyung-hwa, staff reporter

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