20th Presidential Candidate Survey Results Released

The results of the 20th opinion survey on presidential contenders published by Dong-A Ilbo yesterday indicate that presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party (GNP) leads with 35.7 percent of the vote, followed by independent candidate Lee Hoi-chang with 17.6 percent, Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party (UNDP) with 12.6 percent, Creative Korea Party (CKP) Moon Kook-hyun with 5.4 percent, Democratic Labor Party (DLP) Presidential Candidate Kwon Young-ghil with 2.8 percent, and Democratic candidate Lee In-je with 0.7 percent.

Compared with the 19th opinion poll conducted on November 24, overall approval ratings of the candidates declined, from Lee Myung-bak with 37.1 percent, Lee hoi-chang with 18.5 percent, Chung Dong-young with 14,0 percent, Moon Kook-hyun with 7.0 percent, Kwon Young-ghil with 4.6 percent, and Lee In-je with 1.8 percent.

At the request of Dong-A Ilbo, the opinion polling company KRC (Korea Research Center) conducted a survey on 3,400 adults nationwide between November 30 and December 1. Lee Myung-bak got the highest rating of 64.6 percent when those polled were asked who was the most likely to be elected as president, followed by Lee hoi-chang with 10.7 percent, and Chung Dong-young with 5.8 percent.

As for party approval rating, the GNP got 47.6 percent, followed by the UNDP with 14.3 percent, DLP with 8.8 percent, DP with 5.5 percent, and CKP with 4.2 percent. 74.7 percent of respondents said they would vote, while 61.4 percent said that they have made up their mind on whom to vote for.

Asked if they approve a merger between the ruling camp, 34.1 percent said yes while 29.8 percent said no. However, when asked about a merger between Lee Myung-bak and Lee Hoi-chang, 37.5 percent said yes while 40.8 percent said no.

swpark@donga.com