By Chung Min-uck
Rep. Park Geun-hye, the presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, saw her approval rating rise in the latest opinion polls, hitting 52.7 percent in a hypothetical two-way race with Ahn Cheol-soo.
Coupled with the unity tour she launched last week, pollsters say people are gradually losing interest in Ahn and his ambivalence, helping her ratings pass 50 percent for the first time.
According to a periodic survey conducted by the JoongAng Ilbo, a local daily, Park beat software entrepreneur-turned-professor Ahn in a two-way race by a margin of 9.5 percentage points. Her rating in the latest survey was up 4.6 percent compared to that of the previous survey conducted in mid-August.
Ahn’s rate stood at 43.2 percent, a 5.2 percent drop from the same survey.
The daughter of late President Park Chung-hee also had a strong showing in a three-way race including Rep. Moon Jae-in, the leading presidential hopeful of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), also topping the chart with 50.6 percent.
Ahn and Moon stood at 31.8 and 15 percent, respectively.
The poll was conducted on 2,000 people from Aug. 29 through Aug. 31. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
Political pundits say the so-called “convention effect,” referring to the rise of support for primary winners after a party convention, explained the higher results.
Park also benefitted from Ahn’s indecisiveness.
“Park’s ratings went up after she stepped up efforts to embrace opponents after winning the party primary on Aug. 20 and the delay of Ahn’s announcement of a presidential bid,” said Yoon Hee-woong, a senior fellow at the Seoul-based polling agency Korea Society Opinion Institute.
Regarding protests by Saenuri Party lawmakers of her unity tour, Yoon said “it was sealed following the meeting with President Lee Myung-bak,” who is the symbolic figure in the anti-Park faction within the ruling party.
After Park launched the reconciliation tour, her enemies in the ruling party, such as Rep. Lee Jae-oh, accused her of a go-it-alone attitude. Lee criticized Park’s unannounced visit the foundation of the late trade unionist Chun Tae-il who died in 1970 when her late father was in power, which was instantly met with opposition within the Saenuri Party.
As part of her move to seek unity ahead of the presidential election slated for Dec. 19, Park made surprise visits to the graves of late former liberal Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.
“Ahn holds the key to Park’s popularity and the presidential election,” Yoon said, cautioning there will be more ups and downs in the polls once the IT mogul makes his decision public.
“This election will be a see-saw game between Park and Ahn,” said Yoon.