Gap narrows between Yoon, Lee after PPP candidate's row with Moon
From left to right: Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party; Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party; Sim Sang-jeung of the Justice Party and Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party
A latest poll showed that the gap between the two leading presidential candidates Yoon Suk-yeol and Lee Jae-myung has shrunk since Yoon's remarks that he will go after corruption allegations of the Moon Jae-in administration if he wins the March 9 election.
According to the survey released by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) on Monday, Yoon of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) scored 43.5 percent and Lee of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) scored 40.4 percent. Compared to the previous week, Lee's rating went up by 2 percentage points, while Yoon's dropped by 1.1 percentage points, narrowing the two candidates' gap from 6.2 percentage points last week to 3.1 percentage points this week.
The latest poll was conducted on Friday and Saturday, shortly after an emotional quarrel between Yoon and President Moon Jae-in.
In an interview published by the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday, Yoon was asked if he would probe the Moon administration if he won the presidency. The opposition candidate, who served as Moon's prosecutor general, said, "Yes. Yes, of course, there will be an investigation."
Yoon stressed that the probe wouldn't be personal, but a legitimate action under the criminal justice system. He also criticized the ruling party and Moon's administration for defending their own investigations of Moon's predecessors while arguing that any investigation of them by Moon's successor would be a political vendetta.
Following the interview, Moon demanded Thursday that Yoon apologize for labeling his government a target of investigation without any grounds.
Yoon, however, dismissed the demand, stressing that he is not planning a political vendetta. The PPP also cried foul that the president's demand for an apology is a clear attempt to intervene in the election.
The latest poll of the KSOI was commissioned by TBS. Its confidence level is 95 percent and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
According to the poll, Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party scored 7.8 percent and Sim Sang-jeung of the Justice Party scored 3.5 percent.
The survey also showed that Moon's approval rating was 50.6 percent, up 3.4 percentage points from the previous week. The disapproval rating of the president was 47.3 percent, down 2.1 percentage points.
According to the poll, 42.5 percent of respondents said they will vote for a ruling party candidate for the sake of stability, up 4 percentage points from the previous week. Another 47.4 percent said they will vote for an opposition candidate to hand a judgment to the Moon administration, down 4.6 percentage points from the previous poll.
Asked about the party respondents support, 36.9 percent said they support the DP, while 34.5 percent said they support the PPP. Another 8.8 percent said they are supporters of Ahn's People's Party and 6.3 percent said they support Sim's Justice Party.
More details are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission homepage.
The four candidates registered their candidacies formally with the National Election Commission on Sunday. The official campaign period starts Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Ahn's wife, Kim Mi-kyung, tested positive for Covid-19 and was admitted to a hospital, Ahn said in a YouTube press conference on Sunday. Ahn broke into tears and could not speak for about 20 seconds as he delivered the news about his wife, currently a professor at the Seoul National University (SNU) College of Medicine.
Ahn and Kim met when they attended the SNU medical school. The couple volunteered as doctors in Daegu in March 2020, when the city was experiencing a surge in Covid-19 infections.
According to Ahn's campaign, Lee sent Ahn a text message and Yoon called Ahn to comfort him.
The National Assembly on Monday passed a revision bill to the election law to allow confirmed Covid-19 patients and self-quarantined voters to go to the voting stations and cast ballots from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on election day, March 9.
BY SER MYO-JA [ser.myoja@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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