Police stand guard on a street near the Seoul Western District Court on Monday in the aftermath of a riot on Sunday morning. (Yonhap)
Police stand guard on a street near the Seoul Western District Court on Monday in the aftermath of a riot on Sunday morning. (Yonhap)

The ruling conservative party led recent polls on South Koreans' political party preferences, with would-be voters showing a growing emphasis on the need for a smooth transition in a potentially upcoming presidential race. This shift comes amid a deeply divided political landscape following President Yoon Suk Yeol's arrest on Sunday.

According to a Realmeter poll released on Monday, 48.6 percent of 1,004 respondents said they would likely support a candidate from the same party as President Yoon if a presidential election were held, assuming the Constitutional Court upholds Yoon's impeachment.

This surpassed those who preferred a transition of power to an opposition party candidate, which amounted to 46.2 percent in the poll.

If the Constitutional Court upholds Yoon's impeachment, passed by parliament in December, South Korea will have to hold a presidential election within 60 days.

The same poll indicated that 46.5 percent of the respondents identified themselves as supporters of the ruling People Power Party, up 5.7 percentage points in a week. Monday's support rating was the highest figure for the ruling party in about 11 months.

On the other hand, 39 percent of the surveyed eligible voters said they were supporters of the Democratic Party of Korea, the lowest since August, according to the poll conducted on Thursday and Friday. The figure was down 3.2 percentage points.

The gap between the major parties in terms of partisan identification came to 7.5 percentage points. It was the first time in six months that a Realmeter poll indicated the ruling party held an advantage over the main opposition party greater than the margin of error.

Leading the popularity of the ruling party were conservative strongholds in the southeast. With the city of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province combined, support for the ruling party surged 8.6 percentage points to nearly 60 percent, leading rival parties by nearly 35 percentage points, according to Realmeter.

Also on Friday, another poll by Gallup Korea indicated that those who identified themselves as ruling party supporters came to 39 percent, surpassing the 36 percent who supported the opposition party.