hankyoreh

Candidates for this year’s presidential election, from left to right: Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party, Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party, Sim Sang-jung of the minor progressive Justice Party, and Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition People's Party. (graphic by Baek Ji-suk)

A poll jointly commissioned by the three major television networks in South Korea found People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and Democratic Party nominee Lee Jae-myung locked in a close match.

A nationwide survey of 2,006 voters from Tuesday to Wednesday found Yoon polling at 39.2% and Lee polling at 35.2%.

The poll was commissioned by the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS), the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) and conducted by the polling companies Ipsos Korea, Korea Research International, and Hankook Research. It had a confidence level of 95% and a sampling error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

The gap between the two major candidates’ poll results was 4 percentage points — a figure within the margin of error.

People’s Party nominee Ahn Cheol-soo and Justice Party candidate Sim Sang-jung polled at 8.1% and 3.7%, respectively.

Meanwhile, 8.2% of respondents said they didn’t support any candidate, while 3.6% said they didn’t know or didn’t respond.

When asked who they thought would win the election regardless of their own preference, 46.3% of respondents answered Yoon, while 40% picked Lee.

In terms of who should become the main opposition candidate in case of a campaign merger, results showed Ahn and Yoon in a tight race, with Ahn at 45.3% and Yoon at 42.4%. Regardless of how the campaign merger turns out, polls indicated that the opposition would prevail over Lee if unified.

In a two-way race between Yoon and Lee, 43.1% of respondents thought Yoon would win, while 36.2% believed Lee would come out on top. In a theoretical matchup between Ahn and Lee, 38.5% of respondents thought Ahn would prevail, while 33.1% believed Lee would win.

Further details of the poll can be found on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission’s website.

By Joh Yun-yeong, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]