hankyoreh

Candidates for next year’s presidential election, from left to right: Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party, Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party, and Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party.

Democratic Party presidential nominee Lee Jae-myung and People Power Party candidate Yoon Seok-youl’s polling figures are so close that they fall within the margin of error.

Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research International, and Hankook Research conducted a nationwide survey of 1,004 voting-age adults from Monday through Wednesday to establish polling figures for presidential candidates. The results showed Lee’s support stood at 38%, a 5-percentage point increase compared to the same survey a week ago. Yoon also saw his numbers increase by 2 percentage points, putting him at 36%. The surveys had a 95% confidence level and a sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

People’s Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo’s support stood at 4% while Justice Party candidate Sim Sang-jung polled at 3%.

Regarding who respondents see winning next year’s presidential election, the survey results show a tie of 39% for both Lee and Yoon. Compared to the prior week, Lee’s numbers rose by 2 percentage points while Yoon’s support rate grew by 3 percentage points.

Moreover, 42% of those polled agreed that they should “vote for the ruling party for stable management of state affairs” while 46% believed they should “vote for the opposition candidate to pass a judgment on the current way of conducting state affairs.” Support for keeping the ruling party in power rose by 3 percentage points compared to last week while support for putting a new party in office remained the same as when last polled.

In terms of handling economic policy, 42% of respondents chose Lee as the best candidate for the job, with Yoon polling at 25%, Ahn at 6%, and Sim at 2%. Regarding what the people thought of the two main parties’ picks for their election committees, 39% said the Democratic Party did a better job while 35% said the opposition did better.

The survey was conducted through phone interviews using completely anonymized numbers provided by three domestic telecommunication companies. The response rate was 23.6%. More information can be found at the websites of the National Barometer Survey and the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.

By Shim Wu-sam, staff reporter

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