By Jun Ji-hye
Presidential front-runner Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea extended his lead over Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party by more than 20 percentage points in the latest survey released Thursday.
Moon garnered 44.4 percent, while Ahn secured 22.8 percent, according to the Realmeter poll conducted from Monday to Wednesday.
Moon lost 2.3 percentage points compared to last week, but Ahn’s popularity decreased by 5.6 percentage points, an apparent result of his failure to distinguish himself during the fourth nationally televised debate, Tuesday.
Ahn has so far experienced a fall in his popularity while having gone through the three TV debates April 13, 19 and 23. Before the debates, Ahn once knocked Moon off the top spot in several polls released, April 9, but since then, the gap between the two has widened.
As both Moon and Ahn lost points, three minor candidates — Hong Joon-pyo of the Liberty Korea Party, Sim Sang-jeung of the Justice Party and Yoo Seong-min of the Bareun Party — enjoyed an increase in their popularity by 2.5 points, 2.9 points and 0.5 points, respectively.
Hong stood in third place with 13 percent, Sim in fourth with 7.5 percent and Yoo in fifth with 5.4 percent.
Voters who left Ahn were seen as gathering around the conservative candidate Hong as the latter received the most support from respondents who described themselves as conservatives, garnering 38.5 percent of support from that group. Ahn secured 25.1 percent and Moon 18 percent from those voters.
jjh@ktimes.com
An official from the pollster said, “Voters over 50 as well as those living in the so-called TK region had contributed considerably to Ahn’s increasing popularity earlier this month, but they now appear to have moved toward Hong.”
The TK region comprises Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, the traditional home turf for conservatives.
Sim, who made an impressive performance during the TV debates by making some notable remarks, had her highest ratings in the latest survey. Especially, she ranked second among voters in their 20s after Moon.