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SEOUL: South Korea's conservative presidential front-runner Lee Myung-Bak on Sunday won rare political support from the country's top umbrella labour organisation.
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) said it would team up with candidate Lee, a former business executive and mayor of Seoul, in the country's first-ever such alliance.
"FKTU has decided to support presidential candidate Lee of the Grand National Party," FKTU spokesman Park Young-Sam told AFP. "FKTU and Lee will team up as partners to make policies in the next five years."
The support from FKTU with 750,000 members nationwide is a major boost for Lee in the run-up to the December 19 election, with his opposition Grand National Party seeking to end a decade of liberal rule.
South Korean unions have traditionally supported liberals rather than conservatives in elections. But the FKTU offered rare support for Lee after it conducted an opinion poll of 236,600 members, according to spokesman Park.
A majority of the workers polled, 41.5 percent, chose Lee as preferred candidate ahead of rival Chung Dong-Young, a liberal of the United New Democratic Party, who received 31 percent, he said.
FKTU is considered less militant than its rival labour organisation, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), in South Korea.
KCTU with 670,000 members nationwide has its own political arm, the Democratic Labour Party which has fielded its own presidential candidate.
Lee's popularity has surged since prosecutors last week cleared him of involvement in a major fraud case allegedly perpetrated by his detained former business partner, Kim Gyeong-Jun.
A survey by YTN television after the first TV debate late Thursday showed Lee maintaining his lead over rivals by wide margins.
The Grand National Party candidate polled 40.4 percent, followed by right-wing independent Lee Hoi-Chang with 16.4 percent and Chung of the United New Democratic Party with 16.2 percent.
- AFP/so
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