By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter


Almost five in 10 people say they will vote for candidates from the largest opposition Grand National Party (GNP) in the local elections in May, according to the latest opinion poll.
Roh Moo-hyun is expected to recognize by midyear that he will become increasingly powerless, political experts said.

In the survey of 1,010 adults conducted Dec. 27-28, 46.3 percent of the respondents said they will give support to GNP candidates in the May 31 local elections, followed by 20.9 percent for the ruling Uri Party and 8.1 percent for the pro-union Democratic Labor Party.

``It’s actually a midterm evaluation of the government,’’ Yoon Eun-key, political affairs commentator in Seoul, said. ``If the Uri Party fails to obtain good results, a lame duck government will come much earlier. In addition, presidential hopefuls, like Lee Myung-bak, will increasingly raise their voices against the government’s politics.’’



For the first time in The Korea Times poll track, Seoul City Mayor Lee Myung-bak, a GNP member, received the strongest approval among the presidential aspirants for 2007.

If the current trend remains unchanged, the political landscape will not undergo a big transformation in May and will subsequently affect the presidential race in 2007, Yoon said.

A total of 139 heads of cities, counties and ward offices are currently GNP members, while only 34 are from the ruling Uri Party. The opposition party also leads the rival party 13 to 2 in the number of heads of metropolitan and provincial governments.

The Korea Times and its sister paper Hankook Ilbo commissioned Media Research to conduct the New Year survey. The poll has a plus or minus 3.1-percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level.

The telephone survey showed that GNP standard-bearers for the May elections drew support from those in their 50s (59.6 percent), housewives (54 percent), residents in North Kyongsang Province (65.2 percent) and those in South Kyongsang Province (61.1 percent).

Supporters of Uri Party candidates were those in their 20s (28.0 percent), blue-collar workers (28.2 percent), white-collar workers (28.4 percent) and residents in the Cholla provinces (32.4 percent).

The approval rating of the GNP rose to a record 39.2 percent, followed by 22.9 percent for the Uri Party.

As for the job approval rating of the president, 31.8 percent of respondents reacted in a positive way. But 67 percent of people thought that Roh could do much better.

Lee Myung-bak placed first in the survey with 23.3 percent of respondents saying that the Seoul Mayor is the most appropriate candidate to become the next president. Former Prime Minister Goh Kun was only 0.5-percentage point behind Lee.

Nearly 50 percent of the respondents said the current five-year, single-term presidency is the optimum choice for South Korea, while more than 27 percent said the country should introduce a four-year, two-term presidency.

Half the people said they want to see experts joining the government in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle.

Seven out of 10 people thought that South Korea’s economy should improve in the New Year. Around 40 percent of the interviewees said they want the government to create more jobs.

More than 42 percent of those polled marked corruption and the gap between the rich and the poor as the two top priorities the government should tackle this year.

im@koreatimes.co.kr