South Korea: DP's Lee leads by over 50 pc in hypothetical matchup against PPP's Kim, poll shows

Seoul, May 11 (IANS) The Democratic Party's (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung has expanded his lead to over 50 per cent in a hypothetical matchup against the People Power Party's (PPP) Kim Moon-soo, a recent poll showed Sunday.

Lee garnered 52.1 per cent support against Kim's 31.1 per cent 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 per cent.

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

Among those who identified as politically moderate, 54.9 per cent opted for Lee, while 24.3 per cent 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 per cent support, Han 30.5 per cent and the minor party's Lee 5.8 per cent.

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 per cent of the respondents want the presidency to be transferred to the DP or other opposition parties, while 39.2 per cent 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 per cent confidence level and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

--IANS

int/rs/dan