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By Chung Min-uck
Rep. Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), moved ahead of entrepreneur-turned-professor Ahn Cheol-soo in a hypothetical multi-way race for the first time, a local poll showed.
In a survey conducted by Real Meter on Monday and Tuesday, support for Moon jumped to rank him at on 26.1 percent, ahead of Ahn’s 22.5 percent. Rep. Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate, led with 38.6 percent.
The poll was conducted on 1,500 voters with a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent.
This is the first time the DUP candidate has overtaken Ahn in a poll on the popularity of the leading presidential candidates since Real Meter began its surveys in July.
Last week, Moon also beat Ahn in a hypothetical head-to-head race in a survey conducted by the pollster.
“Moon appears to have gained more support after he was chosen as the DUP’s presidential candidate Sunday,” said Lee Taek-soo, the director of Real Meter.
Critics say now Ahn has announced his presidential bid, the current ratings of presidential candidates will not undergo as much fluctuation as some anticipate.
“Ahn’s rating was much higher than that of Moon’s until the revelation by an aide of Ahn’s earlier this month that a ruling Saenuri Party member threatened Ahn with blackmail to stop him running for the presidency. Until then, the professor was construed as a neutral figure staying away from established bipartisan politics,” said Yoon Hee-woong, a senior fellow at the Seoul-based polling agency Korea Society Opinion Institute.
“But the revelation followed by political mudslinging between the two sides made the conservative voters think that the professor is their competitor. Ahn lost many of his conservative supporters.”
The analyst predicted Ahn’s rating will reach just over 30 percent at most after announcing his bid, the highest point he has seen in recent months.
“Voters have already begun to take sides,” Yoon added. “Swing voters in the middle are getting fewer and fewer.”
An official from Moon’s camp evaluated the outcome of the survey as a positive sign in joining forces with the Seoul National University professor to promote a unified liberal candidate in the lead up to the Dec. 19 presidential election.
Meanwhile, the DUP presidential candidate beat Park for the first time in a survey in a two-way race. According to the latest Real Meter poll, Moon had 47.1 percent, up 3.2 percent while Park fell 3.8 percent to 44 percent.
The Saenuri Party downplayed such a result.
“Park’s rating also surged 10 percent after being elected the party’s presidential candidate,” said a Saenuri Party official. “It is nothing but a convention effect.”
Park has faced criticism lately for failing to clearly state her position on historical issues surrounding her late father’s authoritarian rule.
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