While Yoon and Lee Stall, Latecomers Advance... Settling in the 10% Range Lee Breaks '5%' Barrier, Achieves First 4th Place Choi [Realmeter]

Yoon Seok-yeol 27.5% · Lee Jae-myung 25.5% · Lee Nak-yeon 16.0% · Choi Jae-hyung 5.5%

Yoon Seok-yeol down 0.3%p, Lee Jae-myung down 0.9%p
Yoon vs Lee in mid-20% range in a close race within the margin of error

Lee Nak-yeon up 0.4%p, Choi Jae-hyung up 1.3%p
Choi Jae-hyung breaks the '5% support' barrier and rises to 4th place for the first time

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] The gap in approval ratings between the leading presidential candidates from both ruling and opposition parties continues to be a close race within the margin of error. Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol and Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung both maintain approval ratings in the mid-20% range, showing an intense competition for the lead. While the top-tier candidates have stalled, former party leader Lee Nak-yeon and former Board of Audit and Inspection Chairman Choi Jae-hyung have seen slight increases in their approval ratings, ranking third and fourth respectively.

On the 29th, Realmeter, a professional polling agency, conducted a preference survey for next presidential candidates for the fourth week of July, commissioned by OhmyNews. The survey was conducted from July 26 to 27 among 2,058 men and women aged 18 and older nationwide. Former Prosecutor General Yoon recorded 27.5%, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous survey (second week of July). Governor Lee dropped 0.9 percentage points to 25.5%. The gap between the two candidates widened slightly to 2.0 percentage points from 1.4 percentage points in the previous survey but remained within the margin of error (±2.2 percentage points).

While the approval ratings of the first and second place presidential candidates slightly declined, the trailing candidates actively closed the gap.

Former party leader Lee Nak-yeon recorded 16.0%, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous survey, maintaining mid-10% approval ratings. Former Board of Audit and Inspection Chairman Choi Jae-hyung rose 1.3 percentage points to 5.5%, entering fourth place for the first time.

Next were Representative Hong Joon-pyo (4.4%), former Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae (4.1%), former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun (2.1%), People's Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo (2.0%), Representative Yoon Hee-sook (2.0%), former Representative Yoo Seung-min (1.9%), former Justice Party leader Shim Sang-jung (1.0%), Representative Ha Tae-kyung (1.0%), former United Future Party leader Hwang Kyo-ahn (1.0%), Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong (0.8%), Representative Park Yong-jin (0.8%), and Representative Kim Doo-kwan (0.6%). 'Other figures' accounted for 0.6%, 'None' was 1.9%, and 'Don't know' was 1.5%.

In hypothetical two-way matchups, former Prosecutor General Yoon led both Governor Lee and former party leader Lee. In the 'Yoon Seok-yeol vs. Lee Jae-myung' matchup, Yoon led with 40.7% over Lee's 38.0%, a 2.7 percentage point advantage. In the 'Yoon Seok-yeol vs. Lee Nak-yeon' matchup, Yoon received 42.3% support, leading former leader Lee (37.2%) by 5.1 percentage points, a difference outside the margin of error.

Among Democratic Party presidential candidates, Governor Lee (32.8%) was the most preferred, followed by former leader Lee Nak-yeon (23.0%) and former Minister Chu Mi-ae (8.3%). Among conservative opposition presidential candidates, former Prosecutor General Yoon (29.0%) ranked highest, followed by Representative Hong Joon-pyo (13.3%) and former Representative Yoo Seung-min (8.3%).

The combined preference for progressive and ruling party candidates (Lee Jae-myung, Lee Nak-yeon, Chu Mi-ae, Chung Sye-kyun, Shim Sang-jung, Park Yong-jin, Kim Doo-kwan) fell 0.9 percentage points to 50.0%, while the combined preference for conservative opposition candidates (Yoon Seok-yeol, Choi Jae-hyung, Hong Joon-pyo, Ahn Cheol-soo, Yoon Hee-sook, Yoo Seung-min, Ha Tae-kyung, Hwang Kyo-ahn, Won Hee-ryong) rose 1.7 percentage points to 46.0%, narrowing the gap between the two camps from 6.6 percentage points in the previous survey to 4.0 percentage points.

The margin of error for this survey is ±2.2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For detailed survey methodology and results, please refer to the Realmeter website or the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.

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