Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak won approval ratings of 37.9 percent, late entrant Lee Hoi-chang 24 percent and United New Democratic Party¡¯s Chung Dong-young candidate 13.9 percent in a survey conducted immediately after Lee Hoi-chang announced his third presidential bid on Wednesday. Moon Kook-hyun of the Create Korea Party scored 6.9 percent, followed by Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party with 2.2 percent and Rhee In-je of the Democratic Party with 2 percent. Two-time loser Lee Hoi-chang announced Tuesday he will quit the GNP to run again. The phone survey of 1,000 people aged 19 and older was conducted by TNS Korea at the request of the Chosun Ilbo.
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(From left) Presidential candidates Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party, former GNP chairman Lee Hoi-chang and Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party.
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Lee Myng-bak¡¯s approval ratings were practically flat since the last poll on Oct.31, when he scored 38.7 percent. Chung witnessed a 3.2 percentage point drop in his support ratings, while Lee Hoi-chang saw a surge from 19.1 percent to 24 percent.
But a resounding 52.4 percent of respondents opposed Lee Hoi-chang¡¯s third presidential bid, outnumbering the 36.6 percent supporters. Opponents said Lee had already been judged by the public in two previous elections and will divide the conservative vote and pull down the approval ratings of Lee Myung-bak. Supporters said he would become a competent president (46.3 percent) and there were no preferred candidates in the existing pool (19.9 percent.)
The GNP was the most popular party, drawing 46.4 percent of approval ratings despite founding member Lee Hoi-chang¡¯s defection. The UNDP won 10.6 percent, the DLP 4.1 percent, the CKP 3.1 percent and the DP 2.6 percent.
The confidence level was 95 percent with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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