A Gallup Korea-KBS telephone poll on Monday, right after Millennium Democratic Party presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun was selected as the single candidate in a showdown with Chung Mong-joon of National ALIANCE 21, showed support for him at 43.5 percent surpassed his Grand National Party opponent Lee Hoi-chang who garnered 37 percent.

In the November 16 Gallup-KBS poll, Lee outpaced Roh 42.3 percent to 38.3 percent, but support for the latter started to increase from the Gallup-Chosun Ilbo poll on November 22, immediately after the TV debate between Roh and Chung with 42.4 percent for the MDP candidate against 37.4 percent for Lee.

As to the question of who will win the 2002 election in the Monday poll, however, Lee hit 58 percent to Roh's 28 percent.

The GNP was in the lead support by party with 33.9 percent, followed bythe MDP at 22.7 percent, National Alliance 21 at 5.7 percent, and the Democratic Labor Party with 4.4 percent. The poll with an error margin of ±3 percent at the 95 percent confidence level, surveyed 1,047 adults nationwide.

Another poll by TN Sofres and SBS conducted during Monday and Tuesday showed 45.7 percent for Roh against 38.6 percent for Lee.Compared to the TN Sofres/Munhwa Ilbo poll on Monday that showed 48.2 percent for Roh and 39.1 percent for Lee, the gap has slightly decreased from 9.1 percent to 7.1 percent. In the TN Sofres/SBS poll on who will be the next president, Lee at 61 percent stood far higher than Roh with 27 percent.

In the DongA Ilbo/Korea Research poll and Joongang Ilbo's independent survey, Roh ran ahead by 7 percent and 8.6 percent , but both polls showed Lee leading Roh by up to 30 percent in feasibility to be elected. (Hong Young-lim, ylhong@chosun.com )