In first survey after Lee’s legal setback and Han Duck-soo’s bid announcement, Lee garners 46.5%, Han 34.3%
Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of South Korea’s main liberal Democratic Party, holds a lead in a potential three-way race for the country’s next election, but support for the conservative bloc shows signs of resurgence, shows a new poll released Monday.
The poll, conducted by Realmeter from April 30 to May 2, found Lee leading with 46.5 percent support in a hypothetical matchup against former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who is running as an independent, and Lee Jun-seok of the centrist Reform Party.
Han garnered 34.3 percent of support, and Lee Jun-seok trailed with 5.9 percent.
In a separate scenario replacing Han with Kim Moon-soo, the candidate of the main conservative People Power Party, Lee still led the field with 46.6 percent, with Kim at 27.8 and Lee Jun-seok at 7.5 percent.
Han and Kim are expected to begin negotiations soon to merge their candidacies in a bid to challenge the liberal frontrunner.
The survey concluded on May 2, the same day the Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that had acquitted Lee Jae-myung in an election law case and ordered a retrial — a major development that is widely seen as dealing a significant blow to his presidential bid. The impact of the ruling may not have been fully captured in the poll results.
It was conducted before Kim secured the People Power Party's presidential nomination, defeating rival Han Dong-hoon, on May 3.
The findings mark a shift from the previous poll, in which Lee had garnered 50.9 percent in a three-way race with Kim and Lee Jun-seok. His support has since dipped by 4.3 percentage points, while Kim’s rose by 4.5 points. A similar three-way scenario involving Han had not been tested in earlier surveys.
