Week from Election Day, Lee maintains lead; Kim gains ground in polls

With the presidential election just a week away, Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung kept a lead in opinion polls on Tuesday, while People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-soo saw his support steadily gain.

New Reform Party (NRP) candidate Lee Jun-seok, who has ruled out a candidacy merger with Kim, also maintained his double-digit support. From Wednesday, the release of new opinion polls will be prohibited under election law.

Several weekend surveys showed the DP’s Lee leading his two rivals by more than the margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

In a Gallup Korea poll conducted from Saturday to Sunday commissioned by the JoongAng Ilbo, the DP’s Lee secured 49 percent support, ahead of Kim with 35 percent and Lee Jun-seok with 11 percent.

In hypothetical head-to-head matchups, the DP’s Lee led Kim by 52 percent to 42 percent, and the NRP’s Lee by 51 percent to 40 percent.

Another poll by Research & Research, commissioned by the Dong-A Ilbo and conducted on Saturday and Sunday, showed the DP’s Lee with 45.9 percent, followed by Kim with 34.4 percent and the NRP’s Lee with 11.3 percent.

A separate poll by Next Research, conducted from Friday to Sunday for Maeil Business Newspaper and MBN, showed the DP’s Lee at 44.9 percent, Kim at 35.9 percent, and the NRP’s Lee at 9.6 percent.

Each poll had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.