New Approval Ratings for Presidential Hopefuls

In the fourth opinion poll regarding the upcoming presidential election in 2007 held by Dong-a Ilbo as part of its special report commemorating its 87th anniversary, former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak ranked first with an approval rating of 45.6 percent, while former chairwoman Park Geun-hye of the major opposition Grand National Party (GNP) came in second place (20.0 percent).

At the request of Dong-a Ilbo, the opinion polling company Korea Research Center (KRC) conducted a telephone opinion survey on 1,500 adults nationwide on March 29, which showed the approval ratings of Lee and Park as potential presidential candidates rose by 1.7 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, from the previous survey on February 27.

The two were followed by former Gyeonggi provincial governor Sohn Hak-gyu (6.0 percent); former chairman Chung Dong-young of the ruling Uri Party (3.0 percent); lawmaker representative Kwon Young-gil of the Democratic Labor Party (1.9 percent); former prime minister Han Myung-sook (1.7 percent); former justice minister Kang Geum-sil (1.5 percent); former Uri Party chairman Kim Geun-tae (1.3 percent); former president Chung Woon-chan of Seoul National University (0.5 percent); and GNP lawmaker Won Hee-ryong (0.4 percent).

The percentage of those undecided stood at 17.7 percent, down by 2.9 percent from last month`s survey.

With regard to former Gyeonggi provincial governor Sohn`s withdrawal from the GNP, respondents who said it was "wrong" (60.9 percent) overwhelmingly outnumbered those who considered it "right" (23.4 percent). In particular, the proportion of people who believe it was "wrong" increased by a whopping 14.5 percent compared to 46.4 percent in the MBC/KRC survey on March 19, right after he left the party. The survey also demonstrated that the GNP was the most preferred political party (51.4 percent), followed by the Uri Party (11.0 percent), the Democratic Labor Party (8.9 percent), the Centrist Reformists United (CRU; 1.3 percent), and the People First Party (0.3 percent).

The sampling error of the survey was ±2.5 percent (with a 95 percent confidence interval).

taylor55@donga.com