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Public rejecting ruling bloc ahead of by-elections
By Jun Ji-hye
Candidates from opposition parties are leading those from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) by big margins in races for the April 7 mayoral by-elections in both Seoul and Busan, according to opinion polls.
The support rates for President Moon Jae-in and the ruling DPK also hit the lowest, showing the public is not in favor of the ruling bloc's policies.
The latest survey of 1,002 voters in Seoul, conducted on Friday and Saturday by pollster Ipsos, showed that both Oh Se-hoon, Seoul mayoral candidate from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), and Ahn Cheol-soo, the head of the minor opposition People's Party who is also running for the post, are leading the DPK's candidate Park Young-sun, significantly outside the margin of error, in a hypothetical two-way race for the Seoul mayoral by-election.
Oh Se-hoon, the main opposition People Power Party's candidate for the Seoul mayoral election, speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly, Monday. Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
In a bid to increase the chances of the opposition bloc winning the upcoming election, Oh and Ahn are currently in a process to determine who should run as the single unified candidate representing the opposition bloc against Park. The two sides are holding a public opinion poll to decide the single candidate, with the winner expected to be announced on Wednesday at the latest.
In the Ipsos survey, Oh was ahead of Park, the former minister of SMEs and startups, 50.6 percent to 36.8 percent, while Ahn was ahead of Park, 52.3 percent to 35.6 percent.
In a hypothetical three-way race that included both Oh and Ahn as candidates, Park led her opposition rivals by a slight margin, garnering 32.9 percent of the support against Oh with 32.3 percent and Ahn with 23.2 percent.
Ahn Cheol-soo, chairman of the minor opposition People's Party who is running for the Seoul mayoral by-election, speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly, Monday. Yonhap
In the survey, more than half of the respondents (55.3 percent) said they want to vote for an opposition candidate ― either Oh or Ahn ― in a bid to “judge” the failure of the current administration, while 33.3 percent said they would vote for the ruling party candidate to help the current administration continue to conduct state affairs stably.
Park Young-sun, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's candidate running for the Seoul mayoral by-election, exchanges greetings with her supporters during her visit to Seoul's Gwangjin District, Monday. Yonhap
The opposition bloc has also appeared to have an edge over the governing party in the mayoral race in Busan.
In a separate survey by the same pollster on 1,003 voters in the country's second-largest city, the PPP's Park Hyung-jun is leading the DPK's Kim Young-choon, the former oceans minister, 51.2 percent to 28.6 percent.
Park Hyung-jun previously served as chief presidential secretary for political affairs under former conservative President Lee Myung-bak.
The mayoral by-elections in the nation's two largest cities are taking place to choose the successors of two former disgraced mayors who both belonged to the DPK ― Park Won-soon of Seoul and Oh Keo-don of Busan.
Park Won-soon, who was in his third term as Seoul mayor, committed suicide last July after his former secretary accused him of sexual harassment, while Oh stepped down after admitting to sexually harassing a female employee of the city government.
In addition to these incidents, ongoing allegations of land speculation by Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) employees are backing the ruling party and the Moon government into a corner.
According to another survey conducted by Realmeter, Monday, approval ratings of President Moon and the ruling party have fallen to their lowest points since Moon took office in 2017.
Moon's rating fell 3.6 percentage points to 34.1 percent week-on-week, while the DPK's rating fell 2 percentage points to 28.1 percent.
On the other hand, the main opposition PPP garnered a 3.1 percentage point week-on-week increase to 35.5 percent.
“Controversy over the real estate issues caused by the LH scandal has intensified and spread to local governments and other institutions,” a Realmeter official said. “President Moon has been attempting to settle the controversy but to no avail.”
On March 2, two civic groups accused 14 LH officials of using insider information to buy land in Gwangmyeong and Siheung in Gyeonggi Province before the areas were designated as public housing development sites last month. At the time of writing the number of persons found to have been involved in the LH scandal has risen to 20 LH officials and 23 employees of local governments and public corporations.