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Democratic Party presidential nominee Lee Jae-myung and People Power Party presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol.

The latest presidential candidate poll by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) found that presidential nominee for the Democratic Party Lee Jae-myung and People Power Party presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol were within the margin of error for the fifth week in a row.

The KSOI announced on Monday that Lee was preferred by 40.3% of respondents and Yoon by 37.4% in a poll of 1,008 adults around the country that asked them on Dec. 17-18 which presidential candidate they supported. Conducted at the request of the broadcaster TBS, the poll had a confidence level of 95% and a sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Lee dipped 0.3 points and Yoon dropped 4.6 points relative to the same poll a week ago, which flipped their ranking within the margin of error. Last week, Yoon enjoyed 42% of support, compared to Lee at 40.6%.

In the same poll, People’s Party nominee Ahn Cheol-soo netted 4.6% of support, while Justice Party nominee Sim Sang-jung had 4.2%.

When asked how much influence a presidential candidate’s spouse’s qualifications would have on their decision, 68.3% of respondents said “some influence,” while 29.3% said “no influence.”

Among the respondents, 32.3% expressed support for the Democratic Party, 30.1% for the People Power Party, 8.2% for the People’s Party, 6.2% for the Open Democratic Party, and 4.1% for the Justice Party.

Regarding the number of presidential debates that should be held, 67.7% of respondents agreed that there should be “as many as possible for the sake of the public’s right to know,” while just 27.5% agreed that “the legally determined debates supervised by the National Election Commission are sufficient.”

When asked whether special prosecutors should be appointed to investigate the Daejang neighborhood preferential treatment scandal and alleged abuses of prosecutorial authority, 52.2% said yes for both, while 24.8% said yes only for the Daejang allegations.

The survey was conducted entirely by automatic response using virtual mobile phone numbers provided by the National Election Commission. More details are available at the websites of the National Electronic Survey Deliberation Commission and the KSOI.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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