By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Presidential contender Sohn Hak-kyu won a second consecutive victory in the United New Democratic Party's (UNDP) mobile phone voting Thursday, but still lags behind Chung Dong-young in the overall cumulative tally.
Former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, 55, reportedly backed by President Roh Moo-hyun, placed third overall as well as in the second mobile vote.
The turnout stood at 74.9 percent, 4.3 percentage points higher than that of the first vote. The figure was much higher than the 19.2 percent in the previous four rounds of off-line voting.
The high turnout shows that the unprecedented voting method has drawn public interest, party officials said.
Sohn's camp said he has set the stage for a come-from-behind victory.
In the second vote, the former Gyeonggi governor received 21,359 or 38.4 percent of 56,211 eligible votes followed by former Unification Minister Chung with 19,288 votes or 34.6 percent, and Lee with 27 percent.
Although Chung still leads the nomination race the gap between him and Sohn has narrowed to 10,558 votes.
According to the cumulative tally, Chung has support of 39.6 percent, trailed by Sohn with 34.2 percent and Lee with 26.1 percent.
A total of 240,289 people have registered with the party for the electoral college to pick the party's standard-bearer to take on presidential nominee Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party (GNP).
During his visit to Daegu Thursday, Sohn vowed to seek compromise with reform-minded politicians to field a single candidate for the election, if he wins the nomination.
To this end, he said he will try to meet with independent runner Moon Kook-hyun, presidential nominee Sim Dae-pyung of the People First Party and a candidate from the Democratic Party (DP).
The third and last mobile vote is to take place no later than Oct. 14. The fifth and last off-line vote is scheduled to take place nationwide on Oct. 14.
The UNDP, launched in early August by former members of the now-defunct ruling Uri Party and some from the DP, plans to announce its presidential nominee at its convention on Oct. 15.