A public opinion poll on the suitability for the next president revealed that Lee Jae-myung, the representative of the Democratic Party, ranked first, followed by Kim Moon-soo, Minister of Employment and Labor, and Oh Se-hoon, the Mayor of Seoul, with the results announced on the 6th.
According to the National Benchmark Survey (NBS) conducted by Embrain, K-stat Research, Korea Research, and Hankook Research from the 3rd to the 5th, involving 1,005 men and women aged 18 and older, the suitability for the next president was reported as follows: Lee obtained 32%, Minister Kim 12%, Mayor Oh 8%, Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo 7%, and former People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon 6%.
When analyzing the suitability for the next president by political party support, in the People Power Party support group (395 respondents), Minister Kim ranked first, while in the Democratic Party support group (371 respondents), Representative Lee ranked first.
In the People Power Party support group, respondents selected preferences as follows: Minister Kim 27%, Mayor Oh 17%, and Mayor Hong 15%. In the Democratic Party support group, Representative Lee received 74%, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik 3%, and Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon 2%.
In a survey measuring favorability towards potential candidates for the next presidential election, 37% stated they have a favorable opinion of Representative Lee, the highest in the poll. Following him were Mayor Oh with 27%, Minister Kim with 26%, Mayor Hong with 23%, and former leader Han with 20%.
When asked which party's candidate they would vote for if the presidential election were held this year, 37% responded they would choose the Democratic Party's candidate, while 36% said they would choose the People Power Party's candidate. The proportion of respondents who answered 'none' or 'don't know/no response' was 21%.
Regarding the statement that 'the opposition candidate must be elected to change the regime,' 50% agreed, while 41% agreed that 'the ruling party candidate must be elected to recreate the regime.' Support for regime change increased by 1 percentage point (p) compared to the previous survey, while support for regime recreation remained the same.
In the first week of February, the approval ratings for political parties were recorded at 39% for the People Power Party and 37% for the Democratic Party. Compared to the previous survey conducted from January 20 to 22, support for both parties increased by 1 percentage point (p).
The NBS survey was conducted through telephone interviews utilizing mobile virtual numbers (100%). The margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points with a 95% confidence level. The response rate was 20.0%. For more details, refer to the website of the Central Election Polling Review Committee.