The approval ratings of Moon Jae-in, former head of the Democratic Party, and his in-house rival An Hee-jung, the governor of South Chungcheong Province, rose slightly from the previous week, a Gallup poll showed Friday.

According to the poll conducted by Gallup Korea this week, Moon posted an approval rating of 33 percent, up 1 percentage point from a week earlier. The survey was conducted on 1,004 South Koreans with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

An followed with 18 percent, up 1 percentage point from a week earlier. 

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party also saw his rating inch up 1 point to 10 percent, while Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung was unchanged at 8 percent.

The poll included Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn who posted 7 percent. After weeks of silence, however, Hwang declared earlier this week that he will not join the race.

While South Gyeongsang Gov. Hong Joon-pyo posted 2 percent, other polls showed he is widely considered to be the most favored replacement of Hwang.

On Thursday, Realmeter said Hong raked in 32.4 percent of the voters who earlier rooted for Hwang. Both Hong and Hwang are supported by conservatives. An, who is considered relatively conservative compared with other liberal contenders, won 14.9 percent of the acting president's supporters. (Yonhap)