Seoul: Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung was leading his People Power Party (PPP) rival Kim Moon-soo by more than 10 percentage points, an opinion poll showed Wednesday, a day before the two-day early voting period for the June 3 election begins. The Realmeter survey showed support for the DP's Lee at 49.2 percent, followed by Kim with 36.8 percent. The margin of error was 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party (NRP), a former leader of the PPP who has snubbed an appeal by Kim to merge candidacies, was running third with 10.3 percent support. The DP's Lee led Kim by about 20 percentage points when the official campaign began on May 12, but the presidential race tightened as Kim and the NRP's Lee gained ground. The Realmeter poll serves as the final indicator of voter sentiment because the publication of opinion polls will be banned from Wednesday under election law.
The DP's Lee has held a solid lead in the race that will pick a successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted over his failed martial law bid. With the NRP's Lee showing no signs of merging his candidacy with Kim, political analysts expected a three-way race to continue until Election Day. With just six days left before the June 3 election, the two leading candidates are ramping up efforts to shore up support in key battlegrounds.
Lee of the DP plans to focus on eastern Seoul on Wednesday, holding a campaign rally in the wards of Gwangjin and Seongdong. Earlier in the day, Lee will appear on a live YouTube broadcast where he will reiterate his pledge to push the Korea Composite Stock Price Index to 5,000 points and discuss reforms for the stock market. Kim will return to the conservative strongholds of North and South Gyeongsang provinces, and the southeastern cities of Busan and Daegu, to appeal to conservative voters. He will start the day off by visiting the March 15 National Cemetery in the southeastern coastal city of Changwon, before holding campaign rallies in other southeastern cities, including Gimhae, Yangsan, Busan and Daegu. In Gyeongsan, he will visit Yeungnam University to appeal to young voters on campus.