hankyoreh

Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung, former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl and former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yon (Graphic by Park Seon-mi)

South Koreans told pollsters that Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party’s leading presidential candidate, is best-suited to being the country’s next president. Lee Jae-myung topped the poll beyond the margin of error both in hypothetical matchups and across the board.

When Hankook Research asked 1,000 adults around the country from Thursday to Saturday about suitability for president, 25.6% of respondents chose Lee Jae-myung, placing him above all other candidates by more than the margin of error. Commissioned by KBS, the poll had a 95% reliability and a sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 points.

Coming in behind Lee were former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl (18.1%), former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yon (11%), People Power Party lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo (4.8%), and former Board of Audit and Inspection Chairperson Choe Jae-hyeong (4.4%).

Lee Jae-myung also held an advantage beyond the margin of error in a hypothetical two-way contest with Yoon as the two major parties’ respective frontrunners. With support of 44.2%, Lee held a strong lead of 7.3 percentage points over Yoon, who drew 36.9%.

A hypothetical race between Lee Nak-yon and Yoon showed the two of them dead even at 39.7%.

When asked about the significance of next year’s presidential election, 50.7% of respondents stressed the importance of “putting a different party in power,” substantially outnumbering the 38.5% who stressed the need for “continuity in leadership.”

By Oh Yeon-seo, staff reporter

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