Jung Chung-rae is the top first-preference pick among respondents in the Democratic Party of Korea's Aug. 17 national convention leadership race, drawing 36.9% support, according to a poll released Thursday.
In a three-way race survey conducted Monday and Tuesday by pollster Media Tomato on behalf of News Tomato, 36.9% of respondents said they would give their first-preference vote to Jung, while 28.0% chose Kim Min-seok and 9.2% chose Song Young-gil. Some 21.8% said they had no preferred candidate, and 4.1% were unsure.
Broken down by region, support for Jung and Kim was within the margin of error in Seoul — 32.4% versus 31.5% — and in the Honam region at 37.3% versus 34.9%.
Among Democratic Party supporters, Kim led with 44.9%, followed by Jung at 38.9% and Song at 11.2%. The party leader election combines delegate and party member votes with a public opinion poll at a 70-to-30 ratio.
Under the preferential voting system, the candidate finishing third in first-preference votes is eliminated first, and that candidate's votes are redistributed to the top two candidates in proportion to how those voters ranked their second preferences.
On second-preference votes, Song was the top choice at 33.9%, followed by Kim at 12.9% and Jung at 9.0%. Among Democratic Party supporters, Song led at 51.3%, ahead of Kim at 17.1% and Jung at 9.6%.
In a separate favorability survey of the eight supreme council member candidates, Choi Min-hee led with 15.0%, with Park Seon-won close behind at 14.7% — a near-tie within the margin of error. They were followed by Seo Mi-hwa at 6.8%, Kim Yong at 6.0%, Lee Sung-yoon at 5.4%, Han Min-su at 4.7%, Lim Mi-ae at 4.6% and Kim Young-ho at 2.6%. Some 29.2% said they had no preferred candidate, and 11.0% were unsure.
Among Democratic Party supporters, Choi ranked first at 13.3%, followed by Park at 11.1%, Seo at 8.7%, Lee Sung-yoon at 6.5%, Kim Yong at 6.4%, Lim at 5.2%, Han at 2.9% and Kim Young-ho at 2.6%.
The survey polled 1,033 people aged 18 and older nationwide via automated response system on mobile phones. The response rate was 1.7%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.0 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Further details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
bigroot@heraldcorp.com
