By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter


Former Prime Minister Goh Kun continues to have the top approval rating among a list of presidential hopefuls, recent surveys show.
According to a survey conducted by Gallup Korea, Goh topped the list of presidential hopefuls with 53.6 percent, followed by Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of the largest opposition Grand National Party (GNP), with 36.9 percent and Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak also of the GNP, with 35.7 percent.

Goh’s approval rating reached 46.9 percent in a previous survey released by Gallup Korea on Jan. 27.

In the survey of 1,057 adults nationwide conducted Saturday, respondents were asked to choose three presidential hopefuls from among a list of suggested politicians and to answer how much they believe each hopeful is capable of being the next president.

As for the ability of each politician, some 66.7 percent of those surveyed responded Goh is the right person for the next presidency, followed by Mayor Lee with 47.4 percent and GNP chairwoman Park with 42.3 percent.

Mayor Lee’s approval rating represents a sharp increase from January’s 29.4 percent, despite recent corruption scandals allegedly involving his close aides over his ambitious Chonggyechon Stream restoration project in Seoul.

Rankings of the top five presidential hopefuls remained unchanged, compared to the results of the January survey.

Former presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang of the GNP ranked fourth with 21.5 percent and Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who has played a key role in South Korea’s electricity aid proposal to North Korea, placed fifth with 21.1 percent. Chung, former MBC anchorman, received the highest rate among ruling Uri Party hopefuls.

Rep. Kwon Young-ghil was the only member of the progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP) included in the top 10 most promising presidential hopefuls.

Regarding the leadership of President Roh Moo-hyun, the Gallup survey showed that 61.2 percent of the pollees replied negatively, while 28.2 percent answered, ``Roh is doing well.’’

When it comes to political parties, the GNP topped the support polls with 36.7 percent, followed by the ruling party with 21.6 percent and the DLP with 14.4 percent. The minor opposition Democratic Party (DP) placed fourth with 5.3 percent.

In another survey of 1,000 people by a vernacular newspaper, the Seoul Shinmun, earlier this month, former Prime Minister Goh, who has not yet even joined any of the political parties for the 2007 presidential election, also came in first with 20 percent.

Chairwoman Park and Mayor Lee placed second and third with 15.1 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively.

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