Two Leading Parties Compete for Seoul Seat

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Two Leading Parties Compete for Seoul Seat

Seoul is the largest National Assembly seat holder in the nation. The JoongAng Ilbo research team has conducted a second pre-election poll in Seoul and results indicate that there have been dramatic changes since the first poll on February 28.
The biggest change in voting trends is the reduction in undecided voters. This group has been reduced to 13.8 percent and the voters are divided between the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and the Grand National Party (GNP).
Favorable ratings for MDP and GNP candidates have risen about 10 percent from the first poll.
The survey reveals that 37.6 percent of eligible voters plan to vote for the MDP, 33.7 percent for the GNP, 4 percent for the United Liberal Democrats (ULD), 3.1 percent for the Democratic People's Party (DPP), and 6.7 percent for independent candidates.
The second poll was conducted on 20,237 voters in Seoul from March 13 to 15. The survey took a random sample of 500 voters from each district who said they would vote on election day. The margin for error of the sampling is ± 4.38 percent with 95 percent reliability.
The MDP shows higher ratings in 21 districts including Chongrang, Songpuk, Kangpuk, Tobong, Nowon, Yongdungpo, and Kwanak while the GNP is more popular in 11 districts including Kangnam, Socho, and Songpa. Twelve districts show the two parties at about equal levels of favor.
The media as well as the political parties are watching the Chongro district closely. Chongro is considered the center of political power in Seoul.
The results of the first pre-election poll seemed to guarantee a win for the MDP's Lee Chong-chan but the second poll shows that support for the GNP's Chong In-pong has risen to 34.2 percent, just 4.7 percent behind Lee's 38.9 percent.
The current support ratings for the parties are 27.8 percent for the MDP, 21.1 perent for the GNP, 2.9 percent for the ULD, 2.6 perncent for the DPP, and 2.8 percent for other parties.





by Kim Haing

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