SEOUL-- Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung affiliated with the ruling party has retained his front-runner status to run ahead of his opposition rival ex-Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl by a modest margin, the latest presidential contenders' poll showed Friday.

In the poll released by Gallup Korea, Lee of the Democratic Party (DP) was leading Yoon affiliated with the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) 24 percent to 19 percent.

The 5 percentage-point gap is smaller than the 6 percentage-point margin between the two leading presidential contenders seen in the previous Gallup poll, released about a month earlier, and within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Former DP Chairman Lee Nak-yon came in third with 8 percent of support, followed by PPP presidential contender Hong Joon-pyo at 6 percent.

The poll, conducted on 1,000 voters nationwide from Tuesday-Thursday, has a 95 percent confidence level.

The poll also showed 49 percent of the respondents prefer a presidential victory by an opposition candidate for the sake of "a change of government," while 37 percent were in favor of an election victory by a ruling party candidate so that the government can remain in the hands of the DP.

More than half of the respondents, at 52 percent, gave a negative assessment of the Moon Jae-in administration while 38 percent said the president is performing well.

The approval rating for the DP was 33 percent, while the PPP had 29 percent.

Source: Yonhap News Agency