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S. Korean main opposition party rises in opinion polls after presidential impeachment

Xinhua, December 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Korea's main opposition party kept rising in opinion polls after President Park Geun-hye was impeached last week in the parliament, a local survey showed on Thursday.

The Minjoo Party posted 37.0 percent in approval scores this week, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous week, according to a poll of 1,014 voters conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Wednesday.

It was the party's highest since the biggest opposition party changed its name in late 2015, keeping an upward momentum.

Support for the ruling Saenuri Party shed 0.9 percentage points to 16.4 percent, staying downward after President Park was overwhelmingly impeached by 234 to 56 in the 300-seat National Assembly last Friday.

The governing party's approval rating sank after the scandal involving Park and her longtime confidante erupted in October.

As the scandal-scarred president was suspended from office, voters started to look for their next leader though it would take up to 180 days before the constitutional court deliberate on the final removal of Park from office.

Moon Jae-in, former chairman of the Minjoo Party, maintained his first place in presidential polls for the seventh consecutive week at 24.0 percent, up 0.9 percentage points from a week earlier.

Lee Jae-myung of the Minjoo Party, mayor of Seongnam city, southeast of capital Seoul, ranked third at 16.1 percent, after entering this year in the low single digits.

Outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is known to be close to the impeached president and the ruling party, kept his second place with his approval scores of 19.5 percent, up 0.7 percentage points compared with the prior week.

Ban, who is scheduled to end his top UN post by the end of this year, has never declared his run for presidency, but he has been viewed as one of powerful presidential contenders in the governing bloc. Endit