[Photo by Namgung-jinwoong = timeid@]
South Korea's maverick politician Ahn Cheol-soo has emerged as the front-runner in the presidential race next year with his political clout expanded by the successful debut of his splinter political party in this month's parliamentary election, a poll showed Friday.
Ahn, 54, broke away from the Minjoo Party of Korea, led by opposition leader Moon Jae-in, to found the People's Party which became a third largest group in parliament to exercise a significant influence in South Korea's political landscape which has been traditionally based on regional support.
Ahn, a former physician and professor who founded Ahnlab, an antivirus software company, jumped into politics in 2012 as a potential presidential candidate with his urge for the "new politics". But he dropped out of the race and supported Moon to field a unified candidate only to see a victory by President Park Geun-hye.
In a poll conducted by Gallup Korea on April 26-28, Ahn's approval rating jumped to 21 percent from 10 percent on March 26-28, ahead of Moon whose popularity rose slightly from 16 percent to 17 percent. Other potential presidential candidates including Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon were far behind at less than eight percent.
Ahn gained the lead in South Korea's crucial metropolitan area crowded with one-third of the population, and also in southwestern Jeolla provinces.
Meanwhile, the poll showed that President Park's job approval rating edged up slightly to 30 percent after hitting a record low of 29 percent a week ago.
In an election on April 13, Park's Saenuri Party failed to win a majority in the 300-member National Assembly and descended to the second largest parliamentary group, while Moon's party had 123 seats. Ahn's group had 38.
The election was seen as a test of gauging public sentiment ahead of South Korea's presidential race in December 2017. Park, who took office in early 2013 as the country's first female president, cannot seek re-election.
There was a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points in the telephone survey of 1,001 adults.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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