Oh Se-hoon Leads Seoul Mayoral Race, Gets Strong Support From Voters in Middle Age: Survey

Seoul's former mayor, Oh Se-hoon, ranks ahead of his liberal rival for Seoul's mayoral by-election, the ruling administration candidate Park Young-sun, for about 20 percent in a recent survey conducted by an independent polling company on Thursday.

Oh is the main opposition's bet after both opposition parties decided on Tuesday to select a sole candidate to compete against the liberal's mayoral bet.

According to the Wednesday survey conducted by the polling company Realmeter to 806 eligible voters for the Seoul election, around 55 percent of respondents said they would vote for People Power Party's (PPP) Oh Se-hoon over the candidate of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) Park Young-sun in the Seoul mayoral by-election on April 7.

This survey was the first-ever public opinion poll for the two-way race to be conducted on Seoul mayoral election after Ahn Cheol-soo gave way for Oh so as not to divide the support for the opposition bloc and to have a stronger mayoral bet.

Oh has gotten strong support from voters in their 20s, 30s, and those who are above 60 years old. He gained approval ratings of 60.1, 54.3, and 70.5 percent, respectively.

The opposition candidate also beat liberal's Park in favorability when it comes to the residential areas across the city of Seoul.

Among the residents who said that they would "definitely" cast their ballots, 57.9 percent would support Oh, while only 46.5 percent of them said they would vote for Park, survey results show.

 Among those who had been surveyed, a definite huge majority of 95.5 percent said that they are going to cast their votes on April 7.

In party favorability, PPP leads the survey, gaining the support of 37.7 percent, followed by DP with 30.1 percent and the minor conservative People's Party, which gained 9.1 percent support.

The public opinion poll has a confidence level of 95 percent and a plus or minus 3.5 percentage points margin of error.