Seoul: With the election campaign entering its final stretch, a three-way presidential race was seen taking hold Wednesday until Election Day, as candidates ramp up their campaigns a day before early voting begins. An opinion poll released earlier in the day indicated that Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung was the clear front-runner, leading his People Power Party (PPP) rival Kim Moon-soo by more than 10 percentage points.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party (NRP), a former leader of the PPP, was third with some 10 percent support, but the NRP's Lee has refused to merge campaigns with Kim to better challenge the DP's Lee. A Realmeter survey released Wednesday 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. The NRP's Lee came third with 10.3 percent support.
With the election just six days away, both the PPP and the NRP's Lee showed that a possible candidacy merger between the two parties remained elusive. PPP spokesperson Shin Dong-wook hinted at ending efforts to merge candidacies with the NRP's Lee through negotiations, while the NRP candidate reiterated he has had "no intention" of doing so since the beginning of the official campaign.
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. Lee of the DP plans to focus on eastern Seoul on Wednesday, holding a campaign rally in the wards of Gwangjin and Seongdong. Before his campaign rallies, 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 started 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.