CORRECTED: DPJ maintains wide lead over LDP among eligible voters: Kyodo poll+

TOKYO, Aug. 17 Kyodo -
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan maintained its substantial lead
over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party among responding eligible voters ahead
of the Aug. 30 general election, the latest Kyodo News weekly survey showed
Monday.

Asked which party they plan to vote for in the proportional representation
section of the House of Representatives election, 32.6 percent of respondents
specified the DPJ and 16.5 percent the LDP, while 35.1 percent said they were
still undecided, the weekend telephone poll found.
Although the margin of gap between the DPJ and the LDP narrowed by 4.7
percentage points in the fifth such weekly survey compared with a week earlier
-- with support for the DPJ shedding 1.5 points and that for the LDP gaining
3.2 points -- the trend in which the DPJ garnered more than 30 percent and the
LDP less than 20 percent has not changed.
The ratio of undecided voters lost 2.9 points, with two weeks to go till voting.
A similar trend was seen also for single-seat constituencies, with 34.1 percent
saying they will vote for DPJ candidates, down from 35.2 percent the week
before, against 18.8 percent saying LDP candidates, up from 14.8 percent.
Most respondents, at 40.8 percent, said they want a DPJ-centered government to
be formed after the contest, almost unchanged from the previous poll, while
18.2 percent said an LDP-led government is desirable, up 1.2 points.
But 17.3 percent said they favored a new framework to emerge after a
realignment of existing parties, and 11.9 percent said they would like to see a
grand coalition between the LDP and the DPJ take the reins of government.
Comparing Prime Minister Taro Aso with DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama, 48.6
percent said they preferred the opposition leader to be prime minister, versus
19.5 percent who specified the incumbent, an outcome little changed from a week
before.
The Cabinet support rate came to 18.5 percent, up from 17.7 percent.
Among smaller parties, the New Komeito party, which is the LDP's ruling
coalition partner, got 4.9 percent in terms of plans for proportional
representation votes.
The Japanese Communist Party got 3.8 percent, the Social Democratic Party 1.1
percent, the People's New Party 0.9 percent, the recently formed Your Party 0.7
percent, and the New Party Nippon 0.2 percent, but no one named the Japan
Renaissance Party which was formed last year.
When asked whether they usually back a particular party, and to choose one even
if they do not, 33.7 percent named the DPJ, down from 35.4 percent a week
earlier, while 26.7 percent said the LDP, up from 25.8 percent.
In the fifth of six consecutive polls, responses were received from 1,236
eligible voters in random-digit dialing. The surveys began on the weekend
before the lower house was dissolved July 21, and will conclude next week, with
the last survey set for Aug. 26 to 27, close to the voting date.
==Kyodo