Gyeonggi Gov. Lee maintains solid lead in presidential hopefuls’ poll

Apr 20, 2021, 08:34 am

AsiaToday reporter Jo Jae-hak

With nearly ten months away from the March 9 presidential election, Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung retained his solid lead in the progressive bloc, receiving 30.2 percent of support. In the conservative bloc, Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor conservative People’s Party (PP) and lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo competed with each gaining 11.3 percent of support. However, 38 percent of voters said there was no appropriate candidate. This is largely because former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, who has not officially announced that he would enter politics himself, has been missing in the latest survey as a presidential candidate. Public opinion on the former prosecutor-general for the presidential election was divided with 49.8 percent in favor and 43.2 percent in opposition. The main conservative People Power Party (PPP) garnered 34.8 percent of approval score, 7.4 percentage point higher than the ruling Democratic Party (DP) with 27.4 percent.

The latest public opinion poll was conducted on 1,009 adults from Apr. 16-18 by R&Search on behalf of AsiaToday to investigate whether there have been any changes in the political situation after the April 7 by-election. It had plus and minus 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level. In the progressive bloc, Gov. Lee is firmly at the top of the survey, with 30.2 percent approval. He attracted overwhelming support from Honam with 40.6 percent, DP supporters with 57.9 percent, and those in their 40s with 47.3 percent. Former DP Chairman Lee Nak-yon came in second with 12.4 percent. Lee Nak-yon received 24.2 percent of support from Honam and 26 percent from DP supporters.

Former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, who is soon expected to officially declare his bid for the presidency following his resignation as prime minister last week, won 4.7 percent of support. With the DP’s primary race two months away, attention is now on how the return of Chung would impact the structure of presidential candidates in the ruling party. Chung received 10.8 percent of support from Honam. Amid the emergence of former prosecutor-general Yoon in the conservative bloc, the question of how Chung would exert his political presence in the liberal bloc became a pressing matter.

While former prosecutor-general Yoon has not officially declared his bid for the presidency, nearly four out of ten people (38%) said there is no suitable candidate in the conservative bloc as the next president. In the conservative stronghold of TK region – comprising Daegu and South Gyeongsang Province – 47.6 percent said there is no adequate candidate. Both Ahn Cheol-soo and Hong Joon-pyo had the highest support rate of 11.3 percent each, followed by former PPP lawmaker Yoo Seung-min with 8 percent, former United Future Party leader Hwang Kyo-ahn with 4.6 percent, and Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong with 3.4 percent. Hwang, who unified the conservative bloc and led the party during the general election last April, received 6.3 percent of support from PP supporters while winning only 1.6 percent of support from TK region.

South Koreans picked ‘the ability to resolve economic problems’ (30.2%) as the most important requirement to be the next president. Other requirements included the ability to eradicate social irrationality and inequality (20.2%), the ability to govern overall state affairs (16.4%), the ability to resolve social conflicts (13.9%), the ability to communicate (5.1%) and more.

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