Yoon-Lee Support Rate Gap 'Narrows Again'... 8 out of 10 Say 'Won't Change Preferred Candidate'

TBS-KSOI, Yoon Seok-yeol 42% - Lee Jae-myung 40.6%
OhmyNews-Realmeter, Yoon Seok-yeol 45.2% - Lee Jae-myung 39.7%

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, and Yoon Seok-youl, the People Power Party presidential candidate.

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The gap in approval ratings between Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, and Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, has somewhat narrowed. There are also signs of solidifying support bases, with core supporters rallying and an increasing proportion of respondents indicating they will continue to support their current candidate.

According to a poll conducted by TBS, commissioned to the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI), surveying 1,004 adults nationwide aged 18 and over on the 10th and 11th (with a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level), Yoon's approval rating rose by 0.8 percentage points from the previous week's survey (conducted on the 3rd and 4th) to 42%, while Lee's approval rating increased by 2.7 percentage points to 40.6%. The gap in approval ratings narrowed from 3.3% to 1.4 percentage points. According to the KSOI survey alone, the two candidates have been in a close race within the margin of error for four consecutive weeks.

On the same day, a Realmeter poll commissioned by OhmyNews (conducted from the 5th to the 10th, surveying 3,043 adults nationwide aged 18 and over, with a margin of error of ±1.8 percentage points at a 95% confidence level) also showed a narrowing gap. Yoon's approval rating rose by 1.2 percentage points to 45.2%, and Lee's approval rating increased by 2.2 percentage points to 39.7%. The gap narrowed from 6.5 percentage points to 5.5 percentage points.

As the election campaign committees of both parties have been fully activated, a consolidation of votes within each camp has also been observed. Both candidates have seen rising approval ratings among their core supporters. In the Realmeter poll, Yoon's support in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region, where his backing was strong, increased by 5 percentage points from 59.7% to 64.7%. Support among those aged 70 and over also rose by 4.7 percentage points from 59.3% to 64%. Among respondents who identified as conservative, Yoon's approval rating increased by 6.4 percentage points from 66.2% to 72.6%.

Lee's support in the Gwangju-Jeolla region rose by 4 percentage points from 64.9% to 68.9%, and among those aged 40 and over, it increased by 2.9 percentage points from 53.4% to 56.3%. Support within the Democratic Party base also rose by 2 percentage points from 86.4% to 88.4%. Meanwhile, the proportion of undecided voters (those who responded "don't know" or "no preferred candidate") decreased. In the previous survey, it was 9% (2.4% don't know, 6.6% no preferred candidate), but in this survey, it dropped to 6.8% (2.1% don't know, 4.7% no preferred candidate).

The willingness to continue supporting the current candidate has also strengthened. In the KSOI survey, 79% of respondents said they would continue to support their current candidate, an increase of 5.7% from the previous week, while those who said they might change their candidate decreased by 4.9 percentage points to 18.2%. Among Yoon supporters, 86.8% said they would not change their candidate, and among Lee supporters, 89.3% said the same. Compared to the previous survey, this represents an increase of 2.5 percentage points for Yoon and 3.2 percentage points for Lee. For detailed information on the poll, please refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.

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