Presidential front-runner Moon Jae-in of the main opposition party maintained his strong lead over the other contenders in the latest surveys published Wednesday with less than a week before the election.
Moon of the liberal Democratic Party garnered 42.4 percent, while Hong Joon-pyo of the conservative Liberty Korea Party recorded 18.6 percent, according to the Realmeter survey conducted on May 1-2 of 1,016 potential voters.
Moon's number fell by 1.4 percentage points compared with a poll conducted in mid-April when he announced his bid for presidency.
Hong, however, jumped to the second spot by gaining 8.4 percentage points from the mid-April survey. He tied with Ahn Choel-soo of the center-left People's Party, who saw his rating drop by 13.7 percentage points over the same period.
Moon received strong support from almost all regions, and maintained his lead over the other rivals in all age groups 50 and below. With voters aged 60 and older, Hong came in first.
Sim Sang-jeung of the far-left Justice Party came in fourth with 7.3 percent, while Yoo Seong-min of the conservative Bareun Party posted 4.9 percent.
Of Moon's supporters, 45.6 percent said they will surely vote in the upcoming election, while the corresponding figures for Hong and Ahn stood at 18.8 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively.
Asked whether they will keep their support till the end, 89.5 percent of Moon's supporters said so, followed by Hong with 84 percent and Ahn with 80.2 percent.
The poll, meanwhile, showed that Sim benefited most from multiple TV presidential debates, with 50.6 percent of her supporters saying that they made up their minds after watching her perform.
The latest poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, with a 95 percent confidence level.
The Realmeter poll was announced just before the ban went into effect to prevent survey outcomes from being published until the presidential election scheduled for Tuesday next week.
Gallup Korea also announced its latest poll results later in which Moon led the pack with 38 percent, down 2 percentage points from a week earlier. Ahn came in second with 20 percent, and Hong in third with 16 percent, it showed. (Yonhap)