Next Year's Presidential Election Poll Shows Ruling Party Candidate Leading ... Lee Jae-myung 46.8%, Yoon Seok-youl 43.3%

Democratic Party Candidate 40.6%, People Power Party Candidate 33.9%
Yoon Seok-yeol 44.6%, Lee Nak-yeon 42.8%
Yoon Seok-yeol 47.9%, Kim Du-gwan 28.0%

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Jae-ho] In the upcoming presidential election, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate is ahead of the People Power Party (PPP) candidate, according to a survey.

In a hypothetical one-on-one matchup, Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol leads DPK leader Lee Nak-yeon within the margin of error, but trails Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung.

According to the "20th Presidential Election Nationwide Current Issues Poll" (sampling error 95% ±3.1%P) conducted by PNR-People Networks Research on behalf of Gyeongnam Maeil and the Future Korea Institute on the 7th from 2 PM to 8 PM, surveying 1,001 men and women aged 18 and older nationwide, the preference for the next presidential candidate showed the DPK candidate at 40.6% and the PPP candidate at 33.9%, with the DPK leading by 6.7%.

Following were the Justice Party at 3.3%, other party candidates at 8.1%, none at 9.7%, and unsure at 4.4%.

Within the ruling party, Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung led with 31.6%, followed by DPK leader Lee Nak-yeon at 16.5%.

Next were Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun (5.3%), former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae (4.2%), former Minister of the Interior Kim Boo-kyum (3.3%), and DPK lawmaker Kim Du-kwan (0.9%).

Among the conservative opposition, Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol led with 25.1%, followed by independent lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo at 13.7%, former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min (7.8%), Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong (4.7%), People Power Party floor leader Joo Ho-young (3.7%), and PPP emergency committee chairman Kim Jong-in (2.9%).

In the hypothetical one-on-one matchup between Lee Nak-yeon and Yoon Seok-yeol, Yoon led with 44.6% over Lee's 42.8%, a 1.8% lead within the margin of error. Other candidates accounted for 5.9%, none 4.9%, and unsure/no response 1.8%.

In the hypothetical matchup between Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Seok-yeol, Lee Jae-myung led with 46.8% over Yoon's 43.3%, a 3.5% point lead. Other candidates accounted for 3.9%, none 4.5%, and unsure/no response 1.5%.

In the hypothetical one-on-one matchup between Kim Du-kwan and Yoon Seok-yeol, Yoon led with 47.9% over Kim's 28.0%, a 19.9% lead outside the margin of error. Other candidates accounted for 7.2%, none 13.5%, and unsure/no response 3.5%.

Regarding President Moon Jae-in's job approval rating, negative evaluations ('very poor' 43.2%, 'somewhat poor' 11.3%) totaled 54.5%, exceeding positive evaluations ('very good' 25.8%, 'somewhat good' 16.3%) which totaled 42.1%.

In party support, the Democratic Party of Korea led with 38.1%, followed by the People Power Party at 29.9%, the People Party at 7.9%, the Open Democratic Party at 5.3%, and the Justice Party at 3.2%. The sampling frame used in this survey was an automated telephone survey (100% wireless, random sampling).

The survey results were weighted by region, gender, and age based on the resident registration population data from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety as of the end of December 2020, with a response rate of 4.8%. For more details, please refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.