Candidates neck-and-neck in South Gyeongsang

By Lee Tae-hoon

Staff reporter

The most recent voter survey shows that gubernatorial contests in South Gyeongsang, South Chungcheong, and North Chungcheong provinces are too close to call.

The gap between leading candidates in South Gyeongsang and South Chungcheong were within the margins of error, according to the survey carried out over the weekend for the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times.

The survey of 600 adults in each of the three gubernatorial constituencies found that Lee Dal-gon of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) is engaged in a neck-and-neck contest with independent Kim Doo-kwan.

Support for Lee, a former minister of public administration and security under the current Lee Myung-bak administration, stood at 37.7 percent, only 0.2 percentage points higher than that of Kim who served in the same post during the previous Roh Moo-hyun government.

Observers say the outcome of the race will depend on undecided voters, who account for 24.8 percent of those surveyed.

The poll found that Lee enjoyed greater support from people in their 50s and older, while Kim had a strong support base from those in their 40s or younger; housewives and those employed in agriculture favored Lee, while the self-employed and corporate employees preferred Kim.

In South Chungcheong, Ahn Hee-jung of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) was leading the race with support of 27.7 percent, only 2.8 percentage points higher than that of Park Sang-don of the minor opposition Liberty Forward Party.

Ahn's popularity was nearly 7 percentage points higher than that of Park among female respondents, but 0.7 percentage points lower among males.

Ahn was one of the closest confidants of the late former President Roh and is a firm supporter of the latter's plan to relocate government ministries to Sejong City in South Chungcheong Province.

Park, a former Daecheon mayor and two-term lawmaker, also supports that plan.

Campaign watchers noted that the two opposition contenders have the upper hand over their rival candidate Park Hae-choon of the GNP, who supports the Lee administration's push to change the original development plan.

Public sentiment in the region is still against the revision to build a business-friendly town fostering research and education in Sejong, instead of an administrative city.

Park Hae-choon is trailing the two with support of 17.2 percent.

In North Chungcheong, incumbent governor Chung Woo-taik of the GNP is leading the contest with Lee Si-jong of the DP close behind.

Chung was the favorite candidate among self-employed workers with support of 59 percent, while Lee was the most popular candidate among white-collar workers with 54.3 percent.

Overall, support for Chung was 46 percent, 12 percentage points higher than that of Lee. Kim Baek-kyu of the New Progressive Party was lagging far behind the two with 1.8 percent.