SEOUL– Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol is leading his ruling party rival Lee Jae-myung with 42 percent public support against Lee’s 36.8 percent, a survey showed Monday.

Yoon of the People Power Party (PPP) gained 1.4 percentage points from the previous week, while Lee of the Democratic Party edged up 0.1 point, according to the Realmeter survey conducted on 3,046 adults from Jan. 16 to 21.

Yoon led Lee by 5.2 percentage points, which was outside the margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People’s Party, lost 2.9 percentage points to post 10 percent, marking the first decline in six weeks.

Sim Sang-jeung of the minor progressive Justice Party earned 2.5 percent.

Asked to pick the candidate most likely to win, 45.2 percent chose Yoon, while 43.3 percent picked Lee.

Yoon’s rating was up 3.3 percentage points, while Lee’s was down 2.9 points.

President Moon Jae-in’s job performance received 41 percent approval and 55.1 percent disapproval.

Support for each political party stood at 38.4 percent for the PPP, 31.9 percent for the DP, 8.7 percent for the People’s Party, 4.9 percent for the Open Democratic Party and 3.8 percent for the Justice Party.

In a separate survey of 1,012 adults conducted by Global Research on Saturday and Sunday, Yoon and Lee competed within the margin of error at 37.8 percent and 33.6 percent, respectively.

Yoon was up 4.9 percentage points from the previous survey conducted Jan. 16-17, while Lee was down 1 percentage point.

Ahn and Sim followed at 10.1 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.

In a hypothetical three-way race involving Lee, Yoon and Sim, Yoon led with 40.7 percent against Lee’s 36.8 percent and Sim’s 4.5 percent.

In the same scenario but with Ahn instead of Yoon, Lee led with 35.7 percent, followed by Ahn at 29.7 percent and Sim at 4 percent.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Source: Yonhap News Agency