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DP's Lee expands lead to over 50% in hypothetical matchup with PPP's Kim: poll

Published: 11 May. 2025, 17:35 Updated: 11 May. 2025, 17:41

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, delivers a speech at an outdoor performance stage in the County Residents’ Plaza in Haenam County, South Jeolla on May 11. [NEWS1]

The Democratic Party's (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung has expanded his lead to over 50 percent in a hypothetical matchup against the People Power Party's (PPP) Kim Moon-soo, a recent poll showed Sunday.

Lee garnered 52.1 percent support against Kim's 31.1 percent in the hypothetical three-way race that also included Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party, according to a Realmeter poll conducted from Wednesday to Friday on 1,508 eligible voters. Lee Jun-seok earned 6.3 percent.

It marks an increase from the 46.6 percent the DP's Lee recorded in a similar three-way race in the previous Realmeter poll, in which Kim received 27.8 percent and the minor party's Lee 7.5 percent.

Among those who identified as politically moderate, 54.9 percent opted for Lee, while 24.3 percent chose Kim.

In another hypothetical three-way matchup that included former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo instead of the PPP's Kim, the DP's Lee garnered 51.7 percent support, Han 30.5 percent and the minor party's Lee 5.8 percent.

The PPP's leadership had attempted to field Han as the party's presidential candidate by merging Kim's campaign into his after Han previously outperformed in public polls.

On Saturday, however, the PPP's all-member meeting voted down a leadership-backed motion to replace Kim, who secured the party's presidential nomination through the primaries, with Han as the party's candidate.

The Realmeter poll also showed that 55.8 percent of the respondents want the presidency to be transferred to the DP or other opposition parties, while 39.2 percent said they want it to remain with the PPP or the conservative bloc.

The survey, commissioned by the Energy Economic News daily, has a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Yonhap