Yoon leads against Lee 44.7% to 35.6% in polls

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol is leading his ruling party rival Lee Jae-myung with 44.7 percent public support against Lee's 35.6 percent, a survey showed Wednesday.

Yoon of the People Power Party (PPP) gained 5.5 percentage points from a Jan. 10-11 survey, while Lee of the Democratic Party lost 1.3 points, according to the Realmeter survey conducted on 1,018 adults from Monday to Tuesday.

Yoon led Lee by 9.1 percentage points, which was outside the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, lost 2.4 percentage points to post 9.8 percent.

Sim Sang-jeung of the minor progressive Justice Party earned 3.9 percent.

Asked to pick the candidate most likely to win, 48.4 percent chose Yoon, while 42.4 percent picked Lee.

Yonhap