By Kim Susan Se-jeong
Recent survey results on potential presidential candidates showed that Ahn Cheol-soo’s popularity has dropped to 20 percent, keeping him in second place, while Rep. Park Geun-hye leads with 38 percent.
A poll by Gallup Korea from June 11 to 15 showed that support for Ahn, a software mogul-turned-professor, has dropped from the previous week’s results by 3 percent while Park of the Saenuri Party and Rep. Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party (DUP), who ranked first and third respectively, remained stable.
The Seoul National University professor, who is rumored to have presidential ambitions, had started the year with support of 31 percent in Gallup’s January poll. He held on to 23 percent throughout late May and early June until the most recent survey results based on 1,526 participants.
He has not yet made a firm announcement on whether or not he will enter the race for presidency despite speculative rumors among the public and urging from the DUP members to make his position clear.
On the other hand, the popularity of Park and Moon remained relatively steady from the previous week.
The strong presidential contender of the ruling Saenuri Party and the leading potential candidate in the poll, Park started the year at 33 percent but rose five percent in the most recent results. When pitted against Ahn alone, the support for Park was 47 percent, 11 percent higher than the professor.
In third place was Moon of the DUP, who started the year at 7 percent and was at 10 percent in the latest poll.
The poll was carried out through random digit dialing of cell phones and has a sampling error of ±2.5 percent, according to Gallup Korea, at the 95 percent confidence level.