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| Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, left, bumps fists with former ruling Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Lee Nak-yon at TV Chosun studio in Seoul, July 8, ahead of a TV debate for presidential contenders of the ruling party. Joint Press Corps |
By Jung Da-min
With the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) putting off its presidential primary by five weeks due to the recent upsurge in COVID-19 infections, attention is now being paid on how it will affect the competition among the six contenders.
The extended period could either give Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung more time to solidify his lead, or offer a chance for runner-up former DPK Chairman Rep. Lee Nak-yon to catch up.
The DPK announced, Monday, that it would select its candidate on Oct. 10, instead of Sept. 12, but if none of the contenders win more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off election will be held in mid-October.
Currently, Governor Lee has been topping opinion polls, followed by Rep. Lee and four other contenders who passed the first-round primary cutoff, July 11.
Some DPK members, who do not support the governor, had earlier urged a delay of the primary before the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections started in early July. But the idea was dismissed at the time by the party leadership which saw no grounds for the request and considered it as going against the party's own rules and regulations. Governor Lee had also objected to the idea, as the chances of him becoming the candidate were high then considering opinion polls.
But the situation has changed due to the resurgence of infections, and the governor also agreed with delaying the primary.
This could give former DPK Chairman Lee, who also served as prime minister from 2017 to last year, another chance to garner support, which has been rising recently.
According to a survey of 1,013 adults conducted last Friday and Saturday by pollster the Korea Society Opinion Institute, former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, a strong presidential hopeful from the opposition, ranked first with 30.3 percent support, followed by Governor Lee at 26.9 percent and former DPK Chairman Lee at 19.3 percent.
Support for the governor decreased by 1.5 percentage points from a week earlier, while the former chairman picked up 1.2 percentage points. When asked to choose an ideal contender within the ruling party, 46.1 percent of respondents said they supported the governor while the former chairman garnered 42.2 percent support.
In another poll by Realmeter about presidential hopefuls of both the ruling and opposition blocs conducted July 12 and 13, the governor's support was 26.4 percent, down 3.6 percentage points from a week before, while the former DPK chairman's rate rose by 8.4 percentage points to 15.6 percent.
