By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Self-described liberals outnumbered those who defined themselves as conservatives in the latest poll Monday.
The results indicate that there has been a shift in political orientation among Koreans over the past seven years.
The survey conducted by the Hankook Ilbo newspaper, a sister publication of The Korea Times, also found that the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) overtook the governing Grand National Party (GNP) in popularity.
The poll was carried out on 1,000 adults from Saturday to Sunday ahead of the newspaper's 55th anniversary. The poll has a margin of error of plus and minus 3.1 percentage points.
The results showed that 28 percent of people described themselves as liberals, up 3.1 percentage points, while 27.2 percent said they were conservatives, down by 7.2 percentage points from seven years ago.
Prof. Lim Seong-ho of the political science and international relations department at Kyung Hee University in Seoul told The Korea Times that there were several theories that could explain the shift.
``I think the most convincing theory is that public mourning over the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun might have had the biggest influence on the reversal of the trend over the past seven years,'' he said.
But the political scientist didn't rule out the possibility that people might have changed their political philosophy for other reasons.
``To get more trustworthy and reliable data, I think we need new poll results that are obtained after the nationwide mourning has ended,'' Lim added.
The poll found that there had been few changes in the proportion of people who describe themselves as moderates, marking 38.9 percent in the recent survey - it was 38.6 percent in 2002.
About 30 percent answered they support the liberal DP, while 27.3 percent said their preferred party was the conservative GNP.
The support for minor parties also suggested the public's preference for liberals over conservatives.
The Democratic Labor Party came in third with 6.3 percent, followed by the Pro-Park Geun-hye Coalition with 5.5 percent and the New Progressive Party with 3.6 percent.
Only 2.2 percent of people supported the conservative Liberty Forward Party (LFP), indicating the LFP is the least favored among the six.
hkang@koreatimes.co.kr
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