SEOUL-- Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) retook the top position in an opinion poll on presidential contenders by Realmeter, beating former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl of the main People Power Party (PPP).

Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, another PPP contender whose popularity recently shot up, replaced former DP chief Lee Nak-yon as the third most favored candidate for next year's presidential election slated for March.

Realmeter conducted the survey on 2,019 voters nationwide Monday and Tuesday.

Gov. Lee garnered support from 27 percent of respondents, up 2.1 percentage points from the last poll conducted in the fourth week of August. The rating was higher than his previous record-high of 26.4 percent posted in the second week of July.

He outpaced former prosecution chief Yoon of the PPP for the first time since February. Yoon fell to second place with 24.2 percent, losing 2.3 percentage points from last month.

In a hypothetical two-way race, Yoon was still ahead of Gov. Lee with 39.6 percent to 38 percent, within the poll's margin of 2.2 percentage points. Lee managed to narrow the gap from the 6.2 percentage points in the fourth week of August.

Five-term PPP lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo came in third with 15.6 percent support, up 7.5 points from the previous poll.

He was followed by former DP chief and Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon with 13.7 percent.

In an inquiry about the favorability of opposition presidential candidates, Hong took the top spot for the first time, garnering approval of 32.6 percent, jumping by 12.4 percentage points from the corresponding rate tallied in the previous poll.

Yoon stepped down to second place with 25.3 percent of support, down 2.8 percentage points over the same period.

Among DP candidates, Gov. Lee ranked first at 34.9 percent, followed by Rep. Lee at 26 percent.

The poll was commissioned by news outlet OhmyNews.

Source: Yonhap News Agency