Roh vaults to No. 1 in an opinion poll

Roh Moo-hyun, a dark-horse presidential hopeful in the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, has surged in the latest JoongAng Ilbo opinion poll.

Survey results released Wednesday show Mr. Roh, a former democracy activist running on an appeal for political reform, running well ahead of both his strongest party rival, Representative Rhee In-je, and the main opposition leader, Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party.

Asked which candidate would be desirable as the ruling party's presidential nominee, 45.5 percent of the respondents picked Mr. Roh. Mr. Rhee followed with 29.5 percent. The other two runners, Representative Chung Dong-young and the former presidential chief of staff, Kim Joong-kwon, were in single digits with 6.6 percent and 1.7 percent, repectively.

In a hypothetical two-way race against Mr. Lee, Mr. Roh was supported by 55 percent of the respondents, to Mr. Lee's 33.6 percent. The survey conducted on Tuesday polled 1,089 voters throughout the nation.

Just eight days earlier, on March 11, a similar survey put Mr. Lee ahead, 47.8 percent to 37.2 percent.

Pollsters attributed the turning of public sentiment toward Mr. Roh partly to the fervor, akin to people power, he triggered in Gwangju, the party's power bastion, before primary voting there Saturday.

The survey also matched Mr. Lee and Mr. Rhee in a hypothetical two-man presidential race. Mr. Lee had a statistically insignificant lead of 42.2 percent to 41.1 percent.

Adding Representative Park Geun-hye, daughter of former President Park Chung Hee, to the mix, Mr. Roh remained strong. In a three-way poll, he took 44.5 percent, Mr. Lee 32.4 percent and Ms. Park 14.9 percent.

Matching Mr. Rhee against Mr. Lee and Ms. Park tipped the preference to the opposition leader, with 37.4 percent, followed by Mr. Rhee with 33.1 percent and Ms. Park with 18.1 percent.

by Ahn Boo-keun