Opposition candidate enjoys lead ahead of South Korea's presidential election

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) - A new survey on Thursday confirmed that South Korea's opposition candidate Lee Jae-myung maintains a commanding lead over the ruling party nominee in the runup to June 3 snap presidential election, local media reports said.

Lee, the Democratic Party (DP) candidate, is leading his People Power Party (PPP) rival Kim Moon-soo with 49% support against Kim's 27%, a National Barometer Survey (NBS) said, according to Seoul-based Yonhap News.

Lee Jun-seok, the candidate of the minor New Reform Party, came next with 7% support.

Some 57% of respondents said they were in favor of a change in administration by the DP through the June 3 presidential election, while 32% hoped to extend the rule of the former governing PPP.

The liberal DP leads the opinion poll with 42% overall support, while the conservative PPP has 28% support.

The poll follows months of political turbulence in South Korea, including a failed bid in December to declare martial law.

The survey was done by pollsters Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research, and Hankook Research on 1,000 people age 18 and older.

*Writing by Aamir Latif