Hong Jun-pyo to Yoon Seok-yeol: "You must embrace Lee Jun-seok... If you oppress him, the presidential election is lost"

"Candidates Should Personally Step Up to Manage Conflicts"

Hong Joon-pyo, member of the People Power Party. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Amid polling results showing that Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, and Yoon Seok-youl, the People Power Party presidential candidate, are in a neck-and-neck race within the margin of error, on the 28th, Hong Joon-pyo, a member of the People Power Party, stated, "Even if you are displeased with Lee Jun-seok, you should embrace him."

On the same day, Hong posted on his Facebook, urging Yoon, "I hope the candidate personally steps up to manage the conflicts. If it worsens, the election will become difficult."

He explained, "There are telephone interviews and ARS (Automated Response System) in opinion polls. Telephone interviews have a response rate of 20-30%, while ARS is only 3-7%," adding, "Statistically, ARS usually favors us by 5-8%. That is due to the public's desire for regime change."

He continued, "Generally, ARS polls like Realmeter only show trends, while telephone interview polls like NBS (National Barometer Survey) can be considered to reflect actual public opinion."

Hong argued, "Even the ARS poll by 'Gongjeong' released today usually favors us by 5-8%, so if it shows a 1.6% lead, it means public opinion has seriously shifted," adding, "If you persecute Representative Lee, the presidential election is lost."

The poll Hong mentioned was conducted by the polling agency 'Gongjeong' on behalf of from the 24th to 25th, surveying 1,000 adults. According to the results, in a multi-candidate race, candidate Lee recorded 39.1%, and candidate Yoon 37.5%. The gap between the two candidates' support rates was 1.6 percentage points, within the margin of error.

Candidate Lee rose by 1.3 percentage points compared to the previous poll, while candidate Yoon fell by 3.1 percentage points. The poll was conducted entirely via wireless RDD ARS (100%) with a response rate of 6.9%. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For more details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.

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