South Korean presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol (C) of the People Power Party attends a presidential election campaign in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 15, 2022. South Korea's presidential election campaigning officially kicked off on Tuesday for a 22-day run ahead of the election to be held on March 9. (Photo by James Lee/Xinhua)
SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's presidential election campaigning officially kicked off on Tuesday for a 22-day run ahead of the election to be held on March 9.
A total of 14 candidates are competing for the South Korean presidency of a single five-year term, according to the National Election Commission.
During the campaigning period, candidates are allowed to make speeches in open spaces with loudspeakers, distribute leaflets about campaign pledges, and do the ad campaigns on TV and radio.
This will be the first presidential election to be held after the legal voting age was changed from 19 to 18 in South Korea in 2020.
COVID-19 patients and those under quarantine will be allowed to vote on the election day for one and a half hours from 6:00 p.m. local time after the end of the regular polling.
Opinion poll results will be banned from being released from March 3, or six days before the election, to block the results from affecting the choice of voters.
According to the latest survey by Realmeter, support for Lee Jae-myung, a presidential candidate for the governing Democratic Party, rose 1 percentage point over the week to 39.1 percent last week.
Support for the main conservative opposition People Power Party's Yoon Suk-yeol slipped 1.8 percentage points to 41.6 percent last week.
Ahn Cheol-soo of the centrist People's Party won 7.7 percent of support, followed by Sim Sang-jeung of the progressive Justice Party with 2.8 percent.
The results were based on a poll of 3,040 voters conducted from Feb. 6 to 11. It had plus and minus 1.8 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level. ■
South Korean presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party speaks during a presidential election campaign in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 15, 2022. South Korea's presidential election campaigning officially kicked off on Tuesday for a 22-day run ahead of the election to be held on March 9. (Photo by James Lee/Xinhua)
South Korean presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party speaks during a presidential election campaign in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 15, 2022. South Korea's presidential election campaigning officially kicked off on Tuesday for a 22-day run ahead of the election to be held on March 9. (Photo by James Lee/Xinhua)
South Korean presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung (C) of the Democratic Party attends a presidential election campaign in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 15, 2022. South Korea's presidential election campaigning officially kicked off on Tuesday for a 22-day run ahead of the election to be held on March 9. (Photo by James Lee/Xinhua)
