[Newsmaker] Support rating for ex-top prosecutor Yoon dips below 30% for 1st time in 4 months: poll

The support rating for former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, the front-running presidential contender, dived below the 30 percent level for the first time in four months over a series of allegations raised against his wife and mother-in-law, the latest poll on major hopefuls showed Thursday.

The fall diminished Yoon's opinion poll lead over runner-up Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung to within the poll's margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.

According to the poll by Realmeter, the support rating for Yoon stood at 27.8 percent, down 4.5 percentage points from the previous Realmeter poll released three weeks earlier.

It is the first time Yoon's support rate has been in the 20 percent range in Realmeter polls since the corresponding number reached 34.4 percent in March and stayed over 30 percent for four months.

Yoon, with no party allegiance, has been courted by the main opposition People Power Party to join the party.

The poll, commissioned by OhmyNews, was conducted on 2,036 voters nationwide from Monday-Tuesday.

Lee, competing to win the ruling Democratic Party (DP)'s ticket to run in the March 9 presidential election, saw his rating rise by 3.6 percentage points to 26.4 percent to closely follow Yoon by a margin of a mere 1.4 percentage points. It was the highest-ever support rating Lee has achieved in Realmeter polls for the 2022 presidential election.

The gap between Yoon and Lee was 9.5 percentage points in the previous Realmeter poll.

The poll also showed the support rating for ex-Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, affiliated with the DP, hiked by 7.2 percentages points to 15.6 percent.

Ex-Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae, also affiliated with the DP, came in fourth with 5.2 percent of support, followed by opposition presidential hopeful Choe Jae-hyeong, former chief of the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), with 4.2 percent.

A Realmeter analyst said the fall in Yoon's rating has to do with relentless allegations being raised against his wife and mother-in-law while DP contenders enjoyed a boon from the publicity surrounding their party's ongoing presidential primary election. (Yonhap)