Lee, Yoon neck-and-neck in latest surveys

Ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, right, and his rival Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party attend a roundtable meeting held in Seoul, Dec. 28. Korea Times file

The presidential candidates of the ruling and main opposition parties are running neck and neck with support ratings of around 35 percent each, the latest surveys showed Thursday.

Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is in a dead heat with Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) at 35 percent to 34 percent, according to a poll of 1,000 adults conducted Monday to Wednesday by Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research and Hankook Research.

The gap between Lee and Yoon was within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Both Lee and Yoon gained 1 percentage point from a week earlier.

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, lost 2 percentage points to post 10 percent.

Sim Sang-jeung of the minor progressive Justice Party lost 1 percentage point to post 2 percent.

A separate survey conducted by Embrain Public on 1,001 adults, Monday and Tuesday, found Yoon leading overall with 35.9 percent support against Lee's 33.5 percent.

The difference was also within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Yoon was up 6.6 percentage points from the previous survey conducted Dec. 26 and 27, while Lee was down 1.5 points.

Ahn climbed 5 percentage points to 12 percent, while Sim's support stood at 3.2 percent. (Yonhap)