Lee leads Yoon 36 percent to 28 percent: poll
Candidates running in the upcoming presidential election posing for a photo at a forum in Seoul, in this Nov. 25, 2021 file photo. From left are Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party, Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea and Sim Sang-jeung of the Justice Party. Korea Times file
Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung is leading his main opposition rival Yoon Suk-yeol with support of 36 percent to Yoon's 28 percent, a survey showed Thursday.
Lee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea lost 3 percentage points from last week, while Yoon of the People Power Party remained unchanged, according to the survey of 1,000 adults conducted Jan. 3 through Jan. 5 by Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research and Hankook Research.
But Lee is still leading Yoon outside the margin of error for the second consecutive week.
In third place was Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, at 12 percent, which was double his support from last week.
Sim Sang-jeung of the progressive Justice Party lost 3 percentage points from last week and dropped to 2 percent.
Ahn is gaining popularity with young voters warming to him due to his morality, while showing displeasure over the negative election campaigns by the leading candidates, analysts said.
Asked who was the most moral presidential candidate, 35 percent of respondents picked Ahn, followed by Sim with 17 percent.
Fourteen 14 percent picked Yoon as the most moral, with Lee at 13 percent.
The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
Further details are available at the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission. (Yonhap)