More than half of People Power Party supporters favor the readmission of independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon to the party, according to a new opinion poll.
The survey, conducted by polling firm STI at the request of the Hankook Ilbo, found the public evenly divided on Han's return, with 33.2% in favor and 32.4% opposed. Another 34.3% said they were unsure.
Among People Power Party supporters, support for readmission reached 53.5%, outpacing opposition at 33.3%. Conservative respondents also backed his return by 48.1% to 31.3%. In Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, a conservative stronghold, 43.3% supported readmission against 24.4% who opposed it.
The results appear to reflect Han's recent raised profile, including his leading role in blocking Kim Seung-won's nomination as justice minister.
On a separate question about a proposed merger between the Democratic Party and the Rebuilding Korea Party, 43.8% opposed the move while 17.0% supported it, a gap of 26.8 percentage points.
Among Democratic Party supporters, 41.1% opposed the merger compared with 32.7% in favor. In the Honam region, a Democratic Party stronghold, 34.4% opposed the merger and 28.0% supported it, while 37.5% withheld an opinion.
Among progressive respondents, 42.6% opposed the merger and 34.7% supported it. Rebuilding Korea Party supporters, however, backed the merger by 55.7% to 30.0%.
The survey polled 2,000 men and women aged 18 and older nationwide from the 14th to the 17th of this month. Respondents were drawn from Data Spring Korea panels and STI's own panels using proportional quota random sampling, with interviews conducted through mobile web surveys (87.4%) and web surveys (12.6%). The response rate was 4.6%, and the margin of error was plus or minus 2.2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Full details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
