SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl was nominated on Friday as a presidential candidate for the main conservative opposition People Power Party.

In the party's presidential primary, Yoon gained 47.85 percent of the votes cast by both party members and ordinary citizens.

He was trailed by Representative of the National Assembly Hong Joon-pyo with 41.50 percent, former Representative Yoo Seong-min with 7.47 percent and former Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong with 3.17 percent.

Yoon was defeated by Hong in the poll of ordinary citizens 37.95 percent to 48.21 percent, but he overcame Hong by a large margin in the survey of party members.

Yoon won a total of 210,034 votes from party members, beating Hong who garnered 126,519 votes.

The country's presidential election, scheduled for March 9 next year, is widely forecast to be a competition between Yoon and Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Party.

The 60-year-old Yoon was appointed by President Moon Jae-in as the prosecutor general in July 2019 and retired from the position in March this year.