TK's Major Battleground Daegu Suseong Gap... Kim Bu-gyeom and Joo Ho-young in a Close Race Within Margin of Error

Dong-A & Research and Research, 41.3% (Kim Bu-gyeom) VS 38.3% (Joo Ho-young)
KBS, Hankook, Hankook Research, 37.3% (Joo Ho-young) VS 32.1% (Kim Bu-gyeom)

Kim Boo-kyum, Minister of the Interior and Safety (right), is shaking hands with Joo Ho-young, Acting Party Leader and Floor Leader of the Bareun Party, at the party leader's office in the National Assembly in June 2017.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-Young Hwang] In the Daegu Suseong-gap district, considered the fiercest battleground in the Daegu·Gyeongbuk (TK) region where four-term lawmakers are competing, the lead changes with each poll, showing a close race.

According to a poll conducted on the 28th by Dong-A Ilbo through Research & Research targeting 510 adult men and women aged 18 and over living in the Daegu Suseong-gap constituency, Democratic Party candidate Kim Boo-kyum recorded 41.3%, narrowly leading United Future Party candidate Joo Ho-young at 38.3% within the margin of error. (Response rate was 13.7%, sampling error ±4.3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level; for details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.)

Lee Jin-hoon, a former two-term mayor of Suseong District who was cut off from the United Future Party nomination and ran as an independent, received 7.6%, while Gwak Seong-moon of the Pro-Park New Party recorded 0.7%.

Party support rates showed the Democratic Party at 26.8% and the United Future Party at 35.9%.

Kim, the incumbent Suseong-gap lawmaker and former Minister of the Interior and Safety in the current government, is receiving about 15 percentage points higher support than his party’s support rate.

Joo, who served four consecutive terms in Suseong and then moved constituencies to receive a strategic nomination, showed support rates similar to his party’s.

In a poll conducted by KBS and Hankook Ilbo through Korea Research from the 12th to 14th targeting 500 adults aged 18 and over, Joo’s support rate was 37.3%, and Kim’s was 32.1%.

Within the margin of error (±4.4 percentage points), Joo was ahead of Kim. (The sampling frame was conducted via landline and mobile phone interviews, with a sampling error of ±4.4 percentage points at a 95% confidence level; for details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.)

“Other candidates” accounted for 9.3%, “No candidate to vote for” was 2.8%, and “Don’t know/No response” was 18.6%.

By age group, Kim was more supported by those aged 18 to 40, while Joo was more supported by those aged 50 and above.

When asked whether they chose their candidate based on party affiliation or the individual, 68.4% of Kim’s supporters answered the individual, and 29.7% said the party.

This indicates that Kim’s choice was influenced more by the candidate himself than by his party, the Democratic Party.

On the other hand, among Joo’s supporters, 65.1% cited party affiliation, and 32.7% cited the individual.

This shows that Joo’s support was influenced more by his party, the United Future Party, than by the candidate himself.

Both Lee and Gwak, a former 17th National Assembly member from the Grand National Party, are conservative figures, so future unification of opposition candidates is expected to be a variable.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.