Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party was the favorite presidential contender this week for the 12th straight week even after falling from his all-time high record, a poll showed Thursday.

Moon gained 35 percent in the poll conducted from Monday to Wednesday, maintaining his wide lead over his rivals ahead of the May 9 presidential vote, according to Realmeter.

The figure was still shy of last week's 36.6 percent possibly due to backlash over his remarks suggesting he was proud to be recognized by the military-backed former president Chun Doo-hwan.

South Chungcheong Gov. An Hee-jung, also of the Democratic Party, took second place with 17 percent, up 1.4 percentage points from last week. An rose for the third consecutive week to narrow his gap with Moon to 18 percentage points.

He was trailed by Ahn Cheol-soo of the centrist People's Party with 12.5 percent and Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party with 10.5 percent.

South Gyeongsang Gov. Hong Joon-pyo of the former ruling Liberty Korea Party fell 0.7 percentage point to gain 9.1 percent, while Rep. Kim Jin-tae of the same conservative party debuted in 6th place with 5.2 percent.

The Democratic Party remained the favorite party with 50.2 percent, up 0.2 percentage point from the previous week. The People's Party and Liberty Korea Party followed with 14.4 percent and 14.1 percent, respectively, after each gained 2.4 and 2.5 percentage points. The minor progressive Justice Party came fourth at 5 percent, while the minor conservative Bareun Party declined for the fourth straight week to post 4.6 percent.

The survey was conducted on 1,531 adults nationwide and had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. (Yonhap)