By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
Seoul residents still favor incumbent Mayor Oh Se-hoon, despite the court's acquittal of his archrival, former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook, on bribery charges, Friday, a poll said Sunday.
About 38.1 percent of respondents picked Oh as the best person for mayor of the capital, followed by Han with 21.9 percent, according to the telephone survey conducted by polling agency Millward Brown, Saturday.
The survey of 600 adults residing in Seoul was carried out at the request of the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times.
Won Hee-ryong, a three-term lawmaker of the governing Grand National Party (GNP), placed third with 4 percent, followed by Roh Hoi-chan, a former lawmaker who co-chairs the New Progressive Party (NPP) with 3.8 percent and Na Kyung-won, a two-term GNP lawmaker with 3.7 percent.
Kim Sung-soon, the first legislator to declare a bid for the coveted position from the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) had only one percent of the support.
Some 27 percent either declined to comment or had no preferred candidate.
In a separate survey of 600 residents in Gyeonggi Province, incumbent Governor Kim Moon-soo of the GNP enjoyed a 43.5-percent support rate.
Ryu Shi-min, former health and welfare minister, trailed behind Kim with 14.9 percent, while Rep. Kim Jin-pyo, a member of the DP's decision-making Supreme Council, had a 9.4 percent popularity rate, according to the survey.
In a mock election among the most popular candidates for Seoul mayor, incumbent Mayor Oh of the GNP comfortably took the lead with 52.1 percent of the votes, followed by Han of the DP with 27.4 percent and Roh of the NPP with 6.9 percent.
In another mock election that replaced Oh with Won, Han placed first with 35.6 percent, followed by Won with 27.8 percent and Roh with 10.8 percent.
When Oh was replaced by Na, Han led the race with 36.2 percent, followed by Na with 31.7 percent and Roh with 10.5 percent.
Earlier, observers forecast that if Han were to be found innocent, it would deal a heavy blow to the ruling camp, helping her cruise to an easy victory in the Seoul mayoral race in the upcoming June 2 local elections.
However, the poll found that the court's ruling may not grant a certain victory to Han as the nation's attention has been diverted by the sinking of the naval ship Cheonan and the prosecution has already opened investigations against her over another bribery scandal.
Prosecutors suspect that Han may have received political funds of 900 million won ($806,500) from a construction company in 2007.
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