Major presidential candidates from the ruling and opposition camps are running a close race ahead of the December elections, polls taken right after the crucial Chuseok holiday showed Thursday.
Nationwide surveys showed independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo losing some ground, yet generally holding onto his lead that has been maintained after he announced his candidacy to run for the country's top elected post on Sept. 19.
The ruling Saenuri Party's hopeful Park Geun-hye arrested her slide in the ratings after she formally apologized for her late father's human rights abuses late last month, while the standard bearer of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), Moon Jae-in, made minor gains in popularity over the three-day-long holiday.
Local pollsters said surveys taken right after Chuseok are a leading indicator of public sentiment as the presidential race goes into high gear.
Chuseok, considered the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving Day, is one of Korea's biggest traditional holidays and is important to politicians during an election year because it allows family and friends to exchange views on candidates. This year's Chuseok fell on Sept. 30.
Polls conducted by local pollsters Hangil Research, Research and Research, and Hankook Research on Tuesday all showed Ahn leading Park, although the margin of his advantage dipped compared to last month.
Hangil's poll conducted on 1,000 adults revealed Ahn's ratings reaching 47.7 percent vis-a-vis 40.8 percent for his Saenuri rival. Park also trailed Moon 44.5 percent to 44.9 percent.
In the Research and Research survey, Ahn was ahead 48.2 percent to 43.7 percent against Park, but the lead was within the margin of error of the poll, with the ruling party contender gaining an upper hand compared to Moon at 47.4 percent to 44.5 percent.
Another poll released by Hankook Research revealed Ahn's popularity reaching 49.7 percent versus Park's 41.1 percent. The poll indicated Ahn's ratings declining slightly from 50.6 percent tallied in a survey taken on Sept. 22. Park's numbers gained from 39.9 percent.
In a one-on-one race between Park and Moon, the latter led 47.0 percent to 43.7 percent in the latest poll, although the gap again decreased from the previous poll, when the difference in popularity stood at 5.7 percentage points.
On the other hand, a poll by Global Research Co. on 1,000 people and released on Monday, showed Park running ahead of both Ahn and the DUP candidate. In a two-way race between Park and the independent candidate, the ruling party contender was ahead 46.2 percent to 44.3 percent, while she was ahead 47.8 percent to 41.2 percent in a race with the DUP hopeful.
In all four polls, Park maintained her lead in a three-way race.
In the Hangil, and Research and Research polls, Park's rating stood at 37.0 percent and 37.7 percent, respectively, while runner-up Ahn stood at 26.4 percent and 26.6 percent. Moon's ratings reached 22.5 percent and 22.4 percent.
In the Global Research survey, Park was ahead 41.4 percent compared to 28.0 percent for Ahn and 21.2 percent for Moon.
Pollsters said the DUP and independent candidates were still enjoying the so-called convention effect of public support rising after a person is picked as a presidential candidate, while Park's apology related to President Park Chung-hee's human rights abuses on Aug. 24 has not fully helped regain her losses in the past few weeks.
They added that to some extent, revelations that Ahn may have engaged in irregular real estate transactions seem to have hurt his standing.
Survey experts said while Ahn was in the lead with Park and Moon trailing, polls carried out in the last month showed ratings of major candidates rising and falling by as much as 10 percentage points.
"This is a clear sign that there are a lot of swing votes that can affect the outcome of the elections," a source said. (Yonhap)