Seoul, Feb 20 (IANS): Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea's main opposition's presidential candidate, is leading his ruling party rival Lee Jae-myung with 42.9 per cent public support to 38.7 per cent, a poll revealed on Sunday.

Yoon of the People Power Party gained 1.3 percentage points from a week ago, while Lee of the Democratic Party lost 0.4 percentage point, according to the Realmeter survey.

According to the poll, the gap between Yoon and Lee widened to 4.2 percentage points from the previous week's 2.5 percentage points, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The latest survey had the margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points at a 95 per cent confidence level.

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, was in third place with 8.3 per cent support, followed by Sim Sang-jeung of the minor progressive Justice Party with 3.2 per cent.

Asked to pick the candidate most likely to win, 49.4 per cent chose Yoon, while 41.3 per cent picked Lee.

The presidential election is scheduled to take place on March 9.