With the general elections less than three months away, opinion polls showed Monday that the fledging opposition party led by Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo is steadily losing support, as the two major parties rebound in their ratings.
According to the survey of 2,532 voters on Jan. 25-29 by local pollster Realmeter, the People’s Party founded by Ahn garnered support of 13.1 percent, down from its peak of 20.7 percent two weeks ago. The margin of error was 1.9 percentage points.
The Saenuri Party and The Minjoo Party of Korea saw their approval ratings rise to the level they had enjoyed before Ahn defected from the main opposition to form his own party.
 |
| Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo attends his party’s meeting Monday in Seoul. Yonhap |
The greatest 40.6 percent of respondents said they supported the Saenuri Party, while 26.9 percent favored the Minjoo Party.
The poll in the liberal bloc’s stronghold South Jeolla Province saw the Minjoo Party narrow the gap with the People’s Party. The main opposition gained 27.4 percent, up from 23.7 percent last week, while the People’s Party secured 31.1 percent, down from the previous 33.4 percent.
The survey showed a neck-and-neck race between the two mainstream parties in swing districts. While the Saenuri Party led by 5.3 percentage points against the Minjoo Party in Chungcheong Province, the gap was within the margin of error of 6.2 percentage points.
Meanwhile, local pollster Research and Research’s survey showed Monday that U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has emerged as the front-runner for the 2017 presidential election. Of the respondents, 23.4 percent said Ban was their favorite candidate. The margin of error was 3.1 percentage points.
With former Minjoo Party leader Rep. Moon Jae-in and Saenuri Party leader Rep. Kim Moo-sung coming in the second and third place, respectively, independent Ahn was left out in the cold; only 6.4 percent of respondents said they would endorse the businessman-turned-politician.
By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)
