Do Je-hae edits news stories as part of the AI team.
Former SMEs minister leading in polls for Seoul mayoral race
Former SMEs and Startups Minister Park Young-sun, right, a candidate from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea for the Seoul mayoral by-election, greets an elderly supporter in Gangseo District, southwestern Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap
By Do Je-hae
By Do Je-hae
Former SMEs and Startups Minister Park Young-sun is leading in the popularity polls for the Seoul mayoral by-election to take place April 7, according to the latest polls.
A survey conducted by Hankook Research at the request of the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, published Monday, showed that 25.8 percent out of 800 Seoul citizens surveyed said the former five-term lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) was the most suitable candidate to become the next mayor of the capital.
Ahn Cheol-soo, chairman of the minor opposition People's Party and a former presidential candidate, trailed Park with 19.5 percent. Other notable candidates, former main opposition People Power Party (PPP) floor leader Na Kyung-won and former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, followed with 12.9 percent and 9.2 percent, respectively.
The survey came as Ahn was proposing joining hands with the PPP to field a single candidate representing the opposition bloc ― a proposal that the PPP has not shown much interest in yet.
It also showed that voters are most interested in policies related to housing and real estate in the upcoming by-election.
When asked about the biggest issues in the election, housing and real estate topped the list with 49.7 percent, followed by jobs (11 percent), welfare (10.5 percent) and response to the COVID-19 pandemic (10.1 percent). Only 4.7 percent mentioned countermeasures to sexual harassment by powerful officials, which is the reason the by-election is being held.
The winner will succeed the late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon of the DPK who killed himself last July amid allegations he sexually harassed a female employee.
Despite her ratings going up, former Minister Park said she was still aware that this will be a difficult race for her party. “Support for the ruling party is declining in Seoul, so we still need to capture the hearts of its citizens with a humbler mindset,” Park said in a radio interview, Monday.
A Realmeter survey released last week showed support for the PPP was 35.2 percent, up 6.3 percentage points from the previous week; but that for the DPK decreased by 7.8 percentage points to 25.7 percent.