Yoon Seok-youl earns highest support rate among South Korean presidential hopefuls, according to a recent poll
Seoul, South Korea: A public poll recently conducted in South Korea that asked about the suitability of presidential-hopeful candidates for the presidential role has shown that former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl has the highest level of support, with a nearly 40 percent support rate.
The poll, which was run by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) upon the request of broadcaster TBS, asked 1,007 people aged 18 years or older across South Korea between March 19 to March 20 on the suitability of candidates as the next president of the country. Yoon, the former prosecutor general of South Korea, earned the highest support, garnering a 39.1 percent support rate. His support rate had gone up 1.9 percentage points from the poll that KSOI had conducted back on March 15, where Yoon had received a 37.2 percent support rate from respondents. The latest rate found from KSOI's poll is also the highest support rate that Yoon has received among various polls that have been done so far.
Yoon's support rate had previously stayed around mid-10 percent but jumped to around 30 percent since he resigned from the prosecutor general post. Governor of Gyeonggi province Lee Jae-myung's support rate came in as the next highest after Yoon at 21.7 percent, while former Prime Minister and current member of South Korea's National Assembly Lee Nak-yon followed the governor with 11.9 percent support rate. The support rates for the two Lees, who are also the front-running candidates of the Democratic Party of Korea (the ruling party), had fallen by 2.5 and 1.4 percentage points, respectively.
After the top three candidates, an independent member of the National Assembly Hong Joon-pyo (5.9 percent), former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae (2.7 percent), a former member of the National Assembly Yoo Seung-min (2.7 percent), and current Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun (1.9 percent) obtained the next highest support rates. KSOI's recent poll has a confidence level of 95 percent, and its margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
