By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Lee Myung-bak of the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) continued leading the presidential race Sunday, as candidates began registering.
Nine candidates, except for independent Lee Hoi-chang who is expected to split the conservative vote with the former Seoul mayor in the Dec. 19 election, registered with the National Election Commission (NEC).
They included the GNP nominee, Chung Dong-young of the liberal United New Democratic Party (UNDP), Rhee In-je of the Democratic Party (DP) and Moon Kook-hyun of the Creative Korea Party (CKP).
According to the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, Lee topped its survey with 39.4 percent of support. He gained support from nearly half of the respondents in their 50s and over, and Seoulites.
Lee, former CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, is expected to take a solid lead unless something unexpected happens since 58.7 percent said they will support him.
Independent right-wing Lee, came second with 18.6 percent in the survey. UNDP's Chung Dong-young ranked third with 14.1 percent.
Chung's rate jumped up to 20 percent after winning the party's ticket for the presidency on Oct. 15. But it has been hovering around less than 20 percent in recent weeks.
Another liberal Moon Kook-hyun of the CKP and Rhee of the DP saw a single-digit support of 6.9 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively, the Hankook Ilbo poll of 1,000 adults nationwide said. Chung has been seeking an alliance with the two candidates to challenge the GNP nominee.
Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) received 2.7 percent.
The poll said that conservatives were likely to gain more votes even though liberals form an alliance.
The GNP candidate gained the largest support of 43.2 percent while independent Lee received 21.9 percent on the assumption that Chung runs in the election as a unified candidate for liberal camps. Chung placed third with 20.4 percent.
Even though Moon replaces Chung, the two Lees received the largest and second largest support of 43.5 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively. Moon just gained 15.8 percent, according to the survey.
The survey has a margin error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The NEC will accept registration of candidates until 5 p.m. today. It is expected that 14 candidates will officially run for presidency. The official 22-day campaigning will begin Tuesday.
Under the Election Law, registered candidates are given numbers according to the number of seats their parties have in the National Assembly. Independents take a number in alphabetical order.
As a result, Chung of the UNDP having 140 seats in the 299-member Assembly will be given No. 1, followed by frontrunner Lee of the GNP with 129 seats.
Lee Hoi-chang, who took No. 1 in the presidential election in 1997 and 2002, will likely be given a double-digit figure.
Amid the GNP candidate's lead, the stock manipulation scandal in which he is allegedly involved has emerged as an important factor to change the electoral landscape.
If he is found to be innocent, he will likely win the election based on the continuous high approval rating of up to 40 percent.
Otherwise, it is uncertain whether he can continue to take the lead, pollsters predicted.