Poll: Park Young-sun, Na Kyung-won running neck-and-neck race for Seoul mayor

Dec 14, 2020, 09:30 am

AsiaToday reporter Lee Jang-won

A recent poll shows that SMEs and Startups Minister Park Young-sun from ruling Democratic Party (DP) and former People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Na Kyung-won are running a tight race for next April’s Seoul mayoral election. According to the poll, the most important factor to pick a candidate is real estate policy, followed by the political party that a candidate belongs, and administrative experience. Amid spike in COVID-19 cases, more than five out of ten citizens said that Acting Seoul Mayor Seo Jung-hyup is responding well to the COVID-19 situation.

Commissioned by R&Search, AsiaToday conducted the survey on 809 Seoul citizens aged 18 or older over the past three days from Dec. 6 to 8. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three-point-four percentage points with a confidence level of 95 percent. In the poll, Park earned support of 19.6 percent, while Na garnered support of 19.5 percent.

By age groups, Park is popular among voters in their 30s (19.6%) and 40s (19.7%), while Na is favored by voters in their 20s and younger (16.0%) as well as those over 60 (24.4%). By gender groups, Park is more popular among female voters (21.6%) while Na receives higher support among male voters (22.5%). By regions, Park is more popular in Seoul’s northeastern district (21.9%) while Na is relatively favored by voters in the southeastern part of Seoul (20,6%).

Among those who chose “real estate policy” as the most important factor in selecting a mayor of Seoul, Na received support of 20.7% while Park gained support of 10.0%. This indicates that citizens who are disappointed with the government and the ruling party’s real estate policy are counting on the opposition party candidate’s real estate policy. On the other hand, however, among those chose ‘administrative experience’ as the most important factor in choosing a candidate, Park received more support with 23.7% than Na with 12.8%. Both of them are four-term lawmakers, but Na is far ahead of Park in terms of ‘political experience’ with 56.5% and 24.1%, respectively.

Aside from the two women, other potential candidates include former DP lawmaker Keum Tae-sup (9.7%), Park Ju-min (6.2%) and Woo Sang-ho (5.9%) of the liberal ruling party, Seocho Ward office head Cho Eun-hee (5.5%), PPP lawmaker Yun Hee-suk (4.6%), former PPP lawmaker Lee Hye-hoon (1.9%), and Acting Seoul Mayor Seo Jung-hyup (1.7%).

Although the acting Seoul mayor garnered support of 1.7%, he received high support of 5.1% among those who chose ‘administrative experience’ as the most important factor in selecting a candidate. He received relatively even support from different party supporting groups.

According to the survey, more than half (54.5%) of Seoul citizens positively evaluated the Seoul city’s response to COVID-19 pandemic.

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