[Newsmaker] Gyeonggi Gov. Lee outstrips ex-top prosecutor to claim lead in poll on presidential hopefuls

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung outstripped ex-Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl to seize the lead among presidential hopefuls, an opinion poll showed Friday.

Lee garnered 25 percent of support in the survey conducted on 1,001 voters across the nation from Tuesday-Thursday by Gallup Korea for the most favored next leader of the country.

The governor was ahead of Yoon, who had 19 percent, by a margin of six percentage points, which is within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The third spot went to Rep. Lee Nak-yon, a former chairman of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), who garnered 11 percent. It was the first time Lee garnered double-digit support in a Gallup poll since March.

In the previous Gallup poll released a month earlier, Yoon, the opinion poll front-runner for the main opposition People Power Party, led Gov. Lee of the DP 25 percent-24 percent.

Yoon saw his approval ratings take a dive among voters in several major parts of the nation, including North Gyeongsang Province and Gyeonggi Province. The rate of fall was the biggest in Seoul where the support rating for Yoon nosedived from 28 percent to 16 percent this month from early July.

The poll has a confidence level of 95 percent. (Yonhap)