Yoon, Lee in tight race at 41.6 pct vs. 39.1 pct in latest poll

SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Yonhap) -- Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol is narrowly leading his ruling party rival Lee Jae-myung with 41.6 percent support against Lee's 39.1 percent, a poll showed Sunday.

The gap between Lee of the liberal Democratic Party and Yoon of the conservative People Power Party narrowed by 2.8 percentage points to 2.5 percentage points from a previous poll, according to the survey of 3,040 adults conducted by Realmeter last Sunday to Friday.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Lee gained 1 percentage point from the pollster's previous survey on Feb. 2-4, but Yoon lost 1.8 percentage points after President Moon Jae-in slammed his remarks that if elected, he will launch an investigation into "deep-rooted evils" of the Moon administration.

The Realmeter poll also showed Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, came in third with 7.7 percent, while Sim Sang-jeung of the minor progressive Justice Party followed at 2.8 percent.

A separate poll conducted by Southern Post also showed Lee and Yoon neck and neck.

In the Southern Post survey held Saturday on 1,015 voters, 35.5 percent picked Yoon and 35 percent chose Lee.

The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points with a confidence level of 95 percent.

brk@yna.co.kr
(END)