Dark horse Ahn Hee-jung garners his first 20%+ support

South Chungcheong Governor Ahn Hee-jung has garnered over 20 percent in the latest presidential candidate approval rating.

According to a survey conducted by Gallop Korea announced on Friday, former leader of the Minjoo Party Moon Jae-in is leading the presidential race with an approval rating of 33 percent, Ahn with 22 percent, Acting-President Hwang Kyo-ahn and People’s Party co-chair Ahn Cheol-soo with 9 percent, respectively, Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung with 5 percent, and Right Party (party name to be officially announced) Rep. Yoo Seung-min with 2 percent. The top two widened by an additional 1 percentage point from the 10 percentage points, compared to last week, as Moon enjoyed an increase of 4 percentage point.

“Governor Ahn is enjoying higher approval rate as he garnered support from the non-mainstreamers in the Minjoo Party of Korea, under the banner of coalition after former U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon decided to quit the presidential race” said Gallop Korea. Meanwhile, the approval rate for Moon fluctuated in recent days, from 32 percent on Feb. 3 down to 29 percent on Feb. 10, but has rebounded to 33 percent.

Despite the recently heightening security issues such as the new-type missile launch and the murder of Kim Jong Nam, right-wing candidates including Acting-President Hwang and Yoo fell by 2 percentage point and 1 percentage point, respectively. In the meanwhile, left-wing runners excluding Seongnam Mayor Lee saw higher approval rates compared to last week.

Sang-Jun Han alwaysj@donga.com