Park Young-sun 30.3% vs. Oh Se-hoon 52.3%

An opinion poll conducted ahead of the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election found that the main opposition People Power Party’s candidate Oh Se-hoon is holding a lead over the ruling Democratic Party candidate Park Young-sun by 22.0 percentage points. Meanwhile, former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl topped the list of potential presidential candidates with 31.2 percent followed by Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung with 25.7 percent. The gap between Yoon and Lee is within the margin of error.

Marking its 101st anniversary of foundation, The Dong-A Ilbo commissioned Research & Research to conduct a survey of 821 voters in Seoul on Sunday and Monday. According to the survey, Oh earned 52.3 percent, outpacing Park (30.3%) outside margin of error. Oh beat Park in all age groups, while winning 65.1% of support from those over 60. Almost half of respondents (48.8%) said they support the opposition party to hold the ruling party accountable for the government performance and 24.7% said they support the ruling party for stable management of state affairs.

According to another survey asking 1,017 voters nationwide who would be the most qualified presidential candidate in the 2022 election, Yoon Seok-youl came in first with 31.2 percent, followed by Lee Jae-myung (25.7%), ex-DP head Lee Nak-yon (9.3%), and People’s Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo (4.7%). Yoon came out on top in all regions except for the Jeolla provinces, earning 36.2% in Seoul. It was Lee Nak-yon who ranked first in Jeolla with 26.8%.

The survey was conducted via wired (20%) and wireless (80%) telephone interviews and had a 95% confidence interval with a ±3.4 percentage point margin of error in Seoul and a 95% confidence interval with a ±3.1 percentage point margin of error nationwide. For more details, please visit the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.


Sang-Jun Han alwaysj@donga.com