Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Turnabout in 3-way poll
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By Jung Min-ho
By Jung Min-ho
A survey released Wednesday showed Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) getting more support than independent Ahn Cheol-soo in a three-way race with ruling Saenuri Party contender Park Geun-hye for the first time.
The latest Gallup poll indicated that 23 percent of respondents said they would support Moon, 21 percent would vote for Ahn, while Park remained ahead of both with 39 percent.
In the survey, conducted on 929 people from Monday through Wednesday, 17 percent said they were undecided. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.
When asked about a more suitable unified candidate for the liberal camp, Moon received support of 46 percent, 3 percentage points up from last Friday’s survey; Ahn had 34 percent, down 3 points.
Also in two-way hypothetical contests, the DUP candidate edged Ahn against the conservative rival. Moon with 46 percent was inching ahead of Park with 45 percent, whereas Ahn and Park were tied with 46 percent.
It bears further watching how Ahn’s camp abandoning talks of a unified candidacy will affect the dynamics of the campaign and the poll numbers.
Moon’s better performance in the poll gave him more options for unified candidacy talks with Ahn who preferred opinion polls over a nationwide primary that would likely give the DUP’s hopeful a better position with his party-based support.
However, with the clock ticking toward Nov. 26, the presidential registration deadline, Moon needs to hurry up to bring the former IT guru back to the negotiation table to accomplish their mutual goal of defeating the Saenuri Party.
A TV debate the two liberal rivals agreed to hold is expected to be crucial for them to prove their respective competitiveness against Park.
Ahn reportedly is practicing hard for this, though the specific time and place has yet to be decided.