Yoon Seok-youl and Lee Jae-myung Compete for the Lead, While Choe Jae-hyeong Passes the 5% Barrier

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Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl (left) and Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung. Yonhap News

On July 29, survey results showed that former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl and Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung remained the top two contenders, battling in a tight race among possible presidential candidates, with the difference in their approval ratings within the margin of error. Former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea Lee Nak-yon (Lee Nak-yeon) remained in third place with his approval rating continuing its climb, while former chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection Choe Jae-hyeong stepped up to fourth place after passing the 5% barrier.

The polling firm Realmeter conducted a survey of 2,058 men and women ages 18 and older nationwide. The survey on the public’s preference in future presidential candidates in the fourth week of July was commissioned by OhMyNews. According to the survey, former Prosecutor General Yoon topped the list of candidates with 27.5% of support. Governor Lee followed with 25.5%. The two men continued to engage in a close race, with only a 2.0% difference in approval ratings, which lies within the margin of error.

Support for these two candidates slightly fell compared with the survey results released by the same firm on July 15. Yoon’s approval rating dropped 0.3% from 27.8% in the survey conducted in the second week of July, while the Gyeonggi governor saw his approval rating drop 0.9% from 26.4%.

Lee Nak-yon retained his position in third place with approval rating of 16.0%, a 0.4% increase from the previous survey. In the survey results released on July 15, Lee managed to increase his approval rating by 7.2% from the previous survey to 15.6% and succeeded in changing the mood. His approval rating continued to climb in the latest survey, but the increase was smaller than in the previous survey.

The approval rating of Choe Jae-hyeong, former chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection, surpassed 5% for the first time in a survey conducted by Realmeter, securing Choe the fourth place. Choe’s approval rating increased 1.3% from the previous survey.

Choe was followed by the People Power Party lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo (4.4%), former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae (4.1%), former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun (2.1%), and People’s Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo (2.0%).

The total approval rating of progressive and ruling party candidates (Lee Jae-myung, Lee Nak-yon, Choo Mi-ae, Chung Sye-kyun, Sim Sang-jeung, Park Yong-jin, Kim Du-kwan) fell 0.9% from the previous survey to 50.0%, while the total support for conservative and opposition party candidates (Yoon Seok-youl, Choe Jae-hyeong, Hong Joon-pyo, Ahn Cheol-soo, Yun Hee-suk, Yoo Seong-min, Ha Tae-keung, Hwang Kyo-ahn, Won Hee-ryong) climbed 1.7% to 46.0%. The gap between the two sides narrowed to 4.0% from the previous 6.6%.

The latest survey was conducted through telephones (10%) and cell phones (90%), with the callers selected through random sampling. The survey used random digit dialing and the audience response system. It has a 95% confidence level with ±2.2% margin of error. For more details, visit the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.