Presidential Election Survey Results Out

According to the 11th pre-presidential election survey by Dong-A Ilbo, 39.5 percent of the voters favor Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party (GNP), while 24.9 percent favor Park Geun-hye.

The survey conducted on August 12 by Korea Research Center (KRC), a company that specializes in performing surveys hired by Dong-A Ilbo, showed that six percent favor Sohn Hak-gyu, 2.2 percent for former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, 2.1 percent for Chung Dong-young, and 1.7 percent for former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook.

When asked which of the four GNP candidates seem fit to be a presidential candidate, 45.4 percent chose Lee, while 32.5 percent chose Park Geun-hye.

The simulated results of this survey crossed with the results conducted on GNP’s electoral voters on August 11, in which Lee would get 84,560 or 47.8 percent of the 231,386 votes.

Park would get 40.1 percent, or 70,982 votes. The difference in the number of votes between the two candidates was 7.7 percent, or 13,578 votes. 9.2 percent, or 16,239 of the electoral voters, said that they would vote for a presidential candidate, but have not made up their minds yet.

Assemblyman Won Hee-ryong had 1.7 percent with 2,967 votes and Assemblyman Hong Joon-pyo had 1.2 percent with 2,087 votes.

185,189 people, including 46,197 (20 percent) GNP delegates, 69,496 (30 percent) party members, and 69,496 (30 percent) non-party members, will participate in the electoral voting at the GNP primary. The remaining 20 percent will be decided by general surveys.

50.1 percent of those surveyed said they were in support of GNP, 11.3 percent – Uri Party, 8.8 percent – Democratic Labor Party, 6.0 percent – Democratic Party, and 5.3 percent – United New Democratic Party, which was launched on August 5.

60.6 percent of those surveyed said that the second round of the South-North summit talks, planned for August 28-30, would not affect their decisions.

48.7 percent said that the candidate who loses in the GNP primary elections would not accept the result while 41.9 percent disagreed.

tesomiom@donga.com