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Support for Yoon rising, while Lee's rates stagnant in Hankook Ilbo survey
By Nam Hyun-woo
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In the survey conducted by Hankook Research at the request of Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, Yoon secured 42.4 percent of support, followed by Lee with 36.9 percent. Minor People's Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo scored 7.1 percent and another minor Justice Party candidate Sim Sang-jung stood at 2.3 percent.
The gap between Yoon and Lee is 5.5 percentage points, which is within the survey's margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for each candidate.
Compared to a previous Hankook Research poll conducted from Dec. 29 to 30, Yoon's support rate has increased sharply from 28.7 percent to 42.4 percent, whereas Lee's rate has barely changed from 34.3 percent to 36.9 percent. In December, the PPP was in an internal dispute between Yoon and party chairman Lee Jun-seok over election strategy, and the two reconciled in January.
Both Lee and Yoon have been implicated in various allegations.
Lee is accused of having been involved in a large-scale real estate development scandal in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, and his wife came under fire for allegedly having used a government credit card for personal use while he was governor of Gyeonggi Province. Meanwhile, the DPK alleged that Yoon and his wife consult with a shaman.
The support rate for Ahn has declined from 9.0 percent to 7.1 percent, and Sim's also dropped from 4.5 percent to 2.3 percent. At the same time, the rate of respondents who said they don't support any candidate has declined from 14.9 percent to 5.8 percent, showing that voters are increasingly choosing one of the two leading candidates as the election nears.
To the question of how they define the upcoming election, 49.1 percent of respondents said people should root for an opposition candidate for a change in government, while 40.5 percent said the opposite.
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| A citizen walks past the posters of candidates running for the March 9 presidential election in Jongno District, Seoul, Friday. Korea Times photo by Choi Joo-yeon |
Capability vs. ethics
When asked if they though each candidate was capable of running state affairs and had a suitable level of morality, the respondents showed mixed responses.
To the question on capability in running state affairs, 55.8 percent said Lee is fully capable of handling state affairs, while 41.2 percent said he isn't. For Yoon, 36.7 percent said Yoon is capable, but 60.1 percent responded negatively.
On the other hand, Yoon received more positive feedback regarding ethics. For Yoon, 41.9 percent said he is ethical enough, and 56.6 percent said he isn't. On Lee, 31.4 percent said he is ethical, while 67.4 percent said he isn't.
This was interpreted as showing that Yoon earned a positive response from the public partially due to his time as prosecutor general, during which he clashed with President Moon Jae-in while pushing ahead with investigations into Moon's aides on corruption scandals. Also, suspicions surrounding Lee about his alleged involvement in the Seongnam real estate scandal did a disservice to his reputation.
When asked about what is the most important issue that will impact the election results, 26.3 percent picked real estate and housing policies, followed by job creation with 11.5 percent and economic growth with 11.1 percent.
Soaring housing prices in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province are mentioned as one of the policy failures of the Moon government. This resulted in the PPP's landslide victory in the Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections last April 7. Moon has apologized to the public for the government's unsuccessful real estate policies.
The survey questioned 1,000 adults on Feb. 18 and 19. Further details are available at the websites of Hankook Research and the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
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