Opposition leads presidential surveys

By Chung Min-uck

The rise of potential presidential candidates from the opposition camp is dealing a blow to Rep. Park Geun-hye, the frontrunner from the conservative camp, ahead of the election in December.

Entrepreneur-turned-professor Ahn Cheol-soo maintained his lead while Roh Moo-hyun Foundation Chairman Moon Jae-in narrowed the gap with Park, according to recent surveys.

In an opinion poll jointly conducted by local daily Donga Ilbo and pollster Research & Research on Tuesday, Ahn extended his lead over Park by more than 3 percentage points in a two-way race. In an identical survey conducted in December, Ahn was ahead by 9.5 percentage points.

Ahn and Park recorded 51.5 and 39 percent, respectively, to the question of who people would prefer as president.

In another survey conducted by pollster Realmeter over the week, the IT mogul again topped the ruling Grand National Party’s (GNP) interim leader by more than 20 percentage points.

However, Moon’s sudden emergence has come as a surprise.

The close aide to late former President Roh has long had a single digit support rate in previous surveys. However, he marked 15.3 percent in the poll by Realmeter coming third behind Ahn and Park.

Experts say Moon is starting to cement his position as the main opposition Democratic United Party’s (DUP) candidate for the presidency.

Following the result, some members of the DUP have begun to talk about a race without the help of Ahn as they predict a win for their party over the ruling GNP in April’s general election will raise support for Moon even further.

Moon also narrowed the gap with Park in a hypothetical two-way race to less than 8 percentage points.

Experts say the overall rise of the opposition camp’s presidential candidates is mainly attributable to series of corruption scandals involving President Lee Myung-bak’s relatives and aides, and a recent vote-buying scandal involving members of the GNP.