Seoul: The Democratic Party's (DP) presidential contender Lee Jae-myung has extended his lead to over 50 percent in a speculative electoral contest against the People Power Party's (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-soo, as revealed by a recent poll conducted on Sunday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee garnered 52.1 percent support in a hypothetical three-way race, which also included Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party. Kim Moon-soo received 31.1 percent support, while Lee Jun-seok earned 6.3 percent. This represents an increase from a previous Realmeter poll where Lee received 46.6 percent support, Kim had 27.8 percent, and the minor party's Lee had 7.5 percent.

Among politically moderate voters, 54.9 percent favored Lee, compared to 24.3 percent who supported Kim. In another hypothetical scenario involving former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo instead of Kim, Lee maintained significant support with 51.7 percent, Han received 30.5 percent, and Lee Jun-seok got 5.8 percent.

The PPP leadership had earlier attempted to reposition Han as the party's presidential candidate by integrating Kim's campaign into his, following Han's stronger performance in public opinion polls. However, on Saturday, the PPP's all-member meeting rejected a leadership-backed proposal to replace Kim, who secured the party's nomination through the primaries, with Han.

The Realmeter poll further indicated that 55.8 percent of respondents desire the presidency to shift to the DP or other opposition parties, whereas 39.2 percent prefer it to remain with the PPP or the conservative bloc. The survey, commissioned by the Energy Economic News daily, has a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.