DP’s Park ahead in Seoul mayoral race: poll

Park Young-sun, one of the two ruling Democratic Party preliminary candidates, was ahead of all other Seoul mayoral hopefuls in poll results released by Realmeter on Wednesday.

In a survey of 1,016 Seoul citizens aged 18 and above, conducted by the pollster on Sunday and Monday, and commissioned by YTN and TBS, 38.9 percent said they would vote for Park against Ahn Cheol-soo, if the two were in a two-way race.

Some 36.3 percent said they would vote for Ahn, a centrist tech entrepreneur-turned-politician who continues to enjoy support from those weary of the two major parties.

The gap between the two was 2.6 percentage points which was within the margin of error. The poll had a confidence level of 95 percent.

In a possible two-way race with Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party, Park also showed a lead with an approval rating of 39.7 percent, 5.7 percentage points ahead of Na (34 percent), Realmeter said.

In a hypothetical match with former Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon of the PPP, Park was far ahead with 40.6 percent versus 28.7 percent.

Should the opposition fail to field a single candidate, causing a three-way race, Park was still the most favored candidate with an approval rating of 37.5 percent against Na (25 percent) and Ahn (22.7 percent); and 37.7 percent against Oh (18.7 percent) and Ahn (26.7 percent).

Woo Sang-ho, another contender of the DP, was behind all of the three major opposition candidates -- Ahn, Na and Oh -- in all scenarios, according to Realmeter.

Asked to choose their favorite among all who have expressed intent to run, 26.2 percent of the respondents picked Park, while 19 percent chose Ahn, and 15.1 percent preferred Na.

They were followed by Oh (9.4 percent), Woo (7.7 percent), Seocho-gu ward chief Cho Eun-hee of the PPP (2.8 percent), independent Keum Tae-sup (1.4 percent) and Kim Jin-ae of the DP (1.3 percent).

As for the key issue of Seoul City, a whopping 40 percent chose “stabilizing the real estate market.”

It was followed by “stimulating people’s livelihoods and creating jobs” (23.2 percent), “balanced development of Gangbuk and Gangnam” (11.1 percent), “stronger response to COVID-19” (8.9 percent), “policy to tackle low birth rates and aging society” (7.2 percent) and “the environment and safety” (6.1 percent).

Partisan approval ratings marked 32.2 percent for the DP; 28.1 percent for the PPP; 6.9 percent for Ahn’s People’s Party; and 5 percent for the Open Minjoo Party.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)