Voters Will Think Presidentially as they Vote Locally in the Elections
2006-05-15
Shin Chang-un
(JoonAng Ilbo)
Voters are more interested in the 2007 presidential race than the May 31 local elections, while the Uri Party continues to lose ground, a new poll has found. About 45 percent of voters said they will make their choices with next year’s presidential election in mind, the poll found.
Of the people questioned, 649 said they voted for Roh Moo-hyun at the 2002 presidential election. Among them, only 252 said they will vote for an Uri Party candidate in the next presidential election. Of those who decided to withdraw their political backing for the Uri Party, 27 percent said they will support the Grand National Party, 10 percent the Democratic Party and 7 percent the Democratic Labor Party.
Among Grand National Party members who voted for Lee Hoi-chang in the 2002 election, 80 percent said they will vote again for the Grand National candidate, the poll said. Only 7 percent would support the Uri Party.
The poll also asked respondents whom they will vote for in the 2007 presidential election. Among strong possible candidates, 25 percent said Goh Kun, former prime minister.
Grand National Chairwoman Park Geun-hye and Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak gained 22 percent of support each ― and the two are both likely Grand National candidates for the presidential election.
The JoongAng Ilbo, Seoul Broadcasting System, East Asia Institute and Hankook Research polled a group of 1,299 voters over the age of 19 nationwide from May 10 to 11. The telephone interview had a 95-percent confidence, with plus or minus 2.7-percentage-point margin of error.