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Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party; Han Dong-hoon of the People Power Party; and Cho Kuk of the Rebuilding Korea Party. (Yonhap)

With less than two weeks to go until the April 10 general elections in Korea, a new poll has found support for the ruling People Power Party to exceed that for the main opposition Democratic Party, outside the margin of error. The development is being attributed to the meteoric rise of the opposition-aligned Rebuilding Korea Party, which was founded earlier this month. 

Results released Friday from a poll of 1,001 voting-age Koreans carried out by Gallup Korea on Tuesday through Thursday found that 37% of respondents supported the People Power Party.

Of respondents, 29% said they supported the Democratic Party, and 12% said they supported the Rebuilding Korea Party. 

After being neck-and-neck last week at 34% support for the PPP and 33% for the Democrats, that margin has now swelled to a hefty 8 points, putting it outside the margin of error. 

The poll had a confidence interval of 95% with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points and a response rate of 15.4%. See the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission for more details. 

“Support for the Democratic Party has fallen 4 points in comparison to last week, while the Rebuilding Korea Party has picked up just as many, keeping the shift within the pan-opposition field,” Gallup said in its findings. 

While the disparity in support between the two major parties had shifted within the margin of error since March 2023, Gallup noted, the pan-opposition field can be said to have “expanded and rapidly changed with the emergence of the Rebuilding Korea Party.”

When it came to proportional representation, the PPP’s satellite party known as the People Future Party saw the highest level of support, at 34%. That was followed by the Democratic satellite party known as the Democratic Union Party (22%) and the Rebuilding Korea Party (22%). 

The Reform Party saw 4% support, while the Green Justice Party and the Saemirae Party each came in at 2%. 

More respondents felt that opposition parties needed to win in this election (49%), than those who felt ruling camp parties should win (40%). 

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter

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