Moon Jae-in cements lead; Ah Hee-jung jumps in poll
By Kim Hyo-jin
Moon Jae-in
An Hee-jung
Former opposition leader Moon Jae-in is cementing his lead in the presidential race, while South Chungcheong Governor An Hee-jung has soared as the runner-up, according to the latest poll, Monday.
A Realmeter poll conducted between Feb. 1 and 3 on 1,519 respondents showed that Moon, former leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), stood at 31.2 percent, an increase of 2.8 percentage points from the previous week.
Moon has led the poll for five weeks in a row, widening the gap with the second-place contender by about 20 percentage points.
He was followed by Governor An, also from the DPK, who had 13 percent, and acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn with 12.4 percent.
Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, former leader of the minor opposition People’s Party, secured the fourth place with support of 10.9 percent.
An shot up to the second place from fifth the previous week, replacing former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, once a possible contender from the conservative bloc, who dropped out of the race last Wednesday.
The pollster’s view was that the support enjoyed by Ban was spread to multiple conservative and liberal candidates. Support for An, Hwang and Ahn rose by 6.2, 5.8 and 2.4 percentage points respectively from the previous week.
Rep. Yoo Seong-min of the conservative Bareun Party was also a beneficiary of Ban dropping out, standing at 4.9 percent with a 2.5 percentage point increase.
Governor An gained back the support from the Chungcheong region following Ban’s withdrawal and is also drawing attention from center-left voters, Hwang Tae-soon, a political analyst, said.
An earlier laid out his governance plan if elected, saying he will seek to join hands with the conservative bloc in managing state affairs.
“His bid to expand the political spectrum of supporters seems to be working,” Hwang said.
An is also drawing support from center-right voters, who are left bewildered with no outstanding conservative candidates and hopes to check leading contender Moon, he added.
Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said there is a possibility of a further increase in An’s support rating and remained doubtful of Moon and Hwang’s popularity growing further.
“Hwang’s 10 or so percent of support is coming from extreme rightists who oppose the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, which is not likely to expand,” he said.
“Also, the 30 or so percent enjoyed by Moon Jae-in, the leading opposition candidate, is coming from traditional liberal voters. The remaining half of the public, who are categorized as center-rightist have yet to express a preference.”