Presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl of the main opposition People Power Party is leading his ruling Democratic Party rival Lee Jae-myung by 9.4 percentage points in a hypothetical multicandidate race, a survey showed Monday.

Yoon had 46.3 percent support against Lee's 36.9 percent in the survey of 3,023 adults conducted last Monday to Friday by Realmeter.

The difference fell outside the margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, came in third with 3.7 percent, followed by Sim Sang-jeung of the minor progressive Justice Party at 3.3 percent.

Undecided voters accounted for 7.9 percent.

The survey comes about three months ahead of the March 9 presidential election.

President Moon Jae-in's job performance received 39.5 percent approval and 56.9 percent disapproval.

Support for each political party stood at 39.3 percent for the PPP, 33.2 percent for the DP, 7.9 percent for the People's Party, 4.6 percent for the Open Democratic Party and 3.3 percent for the Justice Party. (Yonhap)