With provincial elections slated for June 13 some 20 days away, the opposition Grand National Party leads the running in seven out of 16 contests for provincial mayors and governors, followed by the Millennium Democratic Party with three and one each for the ULD and Democratic Labor Party. The remaining four have no clear front runner according to a poll by the Chosun Ilbo and Gallup Korea of 8,943 citizens from 15 cities and provinces, excluding Gyeongbuk Province, which has a sole GNP candidate so far.
The poll was conducted from May 20 to the 22nd to look at support for provincial leader nominees. Accordingly, the GNP held sway in Busan, Daegu, Gyeonggnam and Gyeongbuk provinces in the Yeongnam area, and Incheon, Gangwon and Chungbuk Province; while the MDP led in three regions in the Honam area; Gwangju, Jeonnam and Jeonbuk provinces. The ULD was strong in Chungnam Province and the DLP in the city of Ulsan. Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Jeju Provinces are a dead heat between the GNP and MDP, while in Daejeon the GNP and ULD candidates are neck-and neck.
The heated contest for the mayor of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province governor has a gap between the top two contenders as close as 1%-2%; in Seoul, Kim Min-seok of the MDP has 34.8% support, just ahead of the GNP's Lee Myung-bak of GNP with 33.7%; while Son Hak-gyu of the GNP with 30.5% has a slight edge over the MDP's Jin Nyum at 28.2%.
(Hong Yeong-lim, ylhong@chosun.com)
