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| Minister Kim Dong-yeon, left, and Kim Eun-hye. Korea Times file |
By Jung Da-min
Two candidates of the ruling and main opposition parties for the Gyeonggi gubernatorial election are in a dead heat when it comes to popularity, a recent poll released on Monday showed.
According to the survey conducted from April 29 to 30 of 1,058 voters by local pollster Gallup Korea, at the request of local daily newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, former lawmaker Kim Eun-hye of the main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP) and her rival, former finance minister Kim Dong-yeon of the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) are almost tied, with each garnering 42.7 and 42.6 percent, respectively.
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| Former lawmaker Kim Eun-hye, left, a candidate of the main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP), speaks with president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, center, as they visit a railway tunnel construction site in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Joint Press Corps |
In the Gallup-JoongAng Ilbo survey, Kim of the DPK is ahead of the PPP candidate in most of the age groups including those over 18 and in their 20s to 50s. But in the age group of those in their 60s or older, 67.4 percent said they support PPP's Kim.
In the meantime, other recent surveys also showed that the two candidates are in a dead heat, with the gap between their support rates being smaller than one percent, or the surveys' margin of error.
In a Realmeter poll conducted on April 27 and 28 of 1,010 adults, at the request of The Asia Business Daily, 43.3 percent of the respondents said they support the DPK's Kim, while 43.9 percent showed support for the PPP's Kim.
Both Gallup and Realmeter polls have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence rate. Further details are available at the websites of Hankook Research and the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
The JoongAng Ilbo poll found that in Seoul, incumbent mayor Oh Se-hoon is comfortably leading, with over 20 percentage points more than his DPK rival, Song Young-gil. Support for Oh stood at 54.6 percent, whereas Song secured just 32.7 percent.
The race for Incheon mayor showed Yoo Jeong-bok of the PPP is ahead of incumbent mayor Park Nam-choon of the DPK, within a margin of error. Park's rate stood at 36.3 percent, whereas Yoo secured 41.5 percent.
