Moon continues to lead poll despite fall

All News 10:37 January 16, 2017

SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- Moon Jae-in, former head of the Democratic Party, led presidential opinion polls last week for the second consecutive week despite a slight fall apparently caused by his closest rival Ban Ki-moon's homecoming, a pollster said Monday.

Moon received an approval rating of 26.1 percent, down 0.7 percentage point on-week, according to a survey conducted by RealMeter between Monday and Friday.

His closest rival Ban Ki-moon, who returned to South Korea Thursday after serving two terms as U.N. chief, saw his approval rating advance 0.7 point to 22.2 percent. His support began to increase on Wednesday.

Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung was in third at 11.7 percent, trailed by Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, former head of the People's Party, with 7 percent.

South Chungcheong Governor Ahn Hee-jung and Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon followed with 4.9 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

The poll was conducted with 2,526 South Korean voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.

In a separate survey conducted with 1,010 adults last week under a six-way race scenario, Moon posted an approval rating of 34.4 percent, trailed by Ban and Ahn with 18.3 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively.

The poll gave Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn 9.5 percent, and Rep. Yoo Seong-min of the planned Bareun Party 5.2 percent.

By party, the Democratic Party was the most popular with 36 percent, trailed by the Saenuri Party with 16.2 percent and the People's Party with 13.2 percent.