S. Korean presidential frontrunner holds top spot: Poll

South Korea's presidential frontrunner Moon Jae-in on Thursday continued to hold the top spot for the 15th straight week, a poll has revealed.

According to the Realmeter poll, Moon from Minjoo Party garnered 44.8 per cent of support this week, up 2.6 percentage points from the previous week, Xinhua news agency reported.

Moon ranked first in opinion surveys for the 15th consecutive week.

He gained the biggest support in all regions except North Gyeongsang province, the traditional support base for conservative politicians.

An early presidential election is scheduled for May 9 as President Park Geun-hye was ousted last month.

Moon was followed by Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party, which broke away from the Minjoo Party in early 2016. Ahn's approval rating rose 2.4 percentage points from the previous week to 36.5 per cent this week.

Ahn was supported especially by conservative voters aged 50 or more, while Moon's support base was liberal and centrist voters aged below 50.

Hong Joon-pyo, of the former ruling Liberty Korea Party, won 8.1 per cent of support. He was trailed by Sim Sang-jung of the progressive Justice Party with 2.8 per cent and Yoo Seong-min of the conservative Righteous Party with 1.7 per cent.

The Realmeter poll was based on a poll of 1,525 voters conducted between Monday and Wednesday.

--IANS

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