Seoul, May 28 With the election campaign entering its final stretch in South Kora, a three-way presidential race was seen taking hold on Wednesday until Election Day, as candidates ramp up their campaigns a day before early voting begins.
An opinion poll released earlier in the day indicated that Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung was the clear front-runner, leading his People Power Party (PPP) rival Kim Moon-soo by more than 10 percentage points.
Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party (NRP), a former leader of the PPP, was third with some 10 per cent support, but the NRP's Lee has refused to merge campaigns with Kim to better challenge the DP's Lee.
A Realmeter survey released Wednesday showed support for the DP's Lee at 49.2 per cent, followed by Kim with 36.8 per cent, The margin of error was 3.1 percentage points at a 95 per cent confidence level. The NRP's Lee came third with 10.3 per cent support.
With the election just six days away, both the PPP and the NRP's Lee showed that a possible candidacy merger between the two parties remained elusive.
PPP spokesperson Shin Dong-wook hinted at ending efforts to merge candidacies with the NRP's Lee through negotiations, while the NRP candidate reiterated he has had "no intention" of doing so since the beginning of the official campaign.
The DP's Lee led Kim by about 20 percentage points when the official campaign began on May 12, but the presidential race tightened as Kim and the NRP's Lee gained ground, Yonhap news agency reported.
The Realmeter poll serves as the final indicator of voter sentiment because the publication of opinion polls will be banned from Wednesday under election law.
The DP's Lee has held a solid lead in the race that will pick a successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted over his failed martial law bid.
Lee of the DP plans to focus on eastern Seoul on Wednesday, holding a campaign rally in the wards of Gwangjin and Seongdong.
Before his campaign rallies, Lee will appear on a live YouTube broadcast where he will reiterate his pledge to push the Korea Composite Stock Price Index to 5,000 points and discuss reforms for the stock market.
Kim will return to the conservative strongholds of North and South Gyeongsang provinces, and the southeastern cities of Busan and Daegu, to appeal to conservative voters.
He started the day off by visiting the March 15 National Cemetery in the southeastern coastal city of Changwon, before holding campaign rallies in other southeastern cities, including Gimhae, Yangsan, Busan and Daegu. In Gyeongsan, he will visit Yeungnam University to appeal to young voters on campus.
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