President Lee Jae Myung’s Approval Rating Falls to 37.4%, Lowest Since Taking Office After Eight Straight Weeks of Decline

[Financial News] A poll released on the 7th found that President Lee Jae Myung’s job-approval rating continued to decline for the eighth consecutive week, falling to its lowest level since he took office.
Realmeter surveyed 2,510 people aged 18 or older nationwide from the 31st of last month through the 4th of this month at the request of Energy Economy Newspaper. The results showed that 37.4% approved of Lee’s job performance, down 1.5 percentage points (p) from the previous week.
The disapproval rating rose 0.8 percentage points to 59.5%. Disapproval has exceeded approval beyond the margin of error for six consecutive weeks. “Don’t know” responses accounted for 3.1%.
Realmeter analyzed that trust in personnel appointments and policies had weakened as controversies over alleged preferential treatment involving ministerial nominees and allegations concerning the cancellation of indictments were compounded by controversy over the reversal of proposed real-estate tax reforms. It said this had led to the decline in approval ratings.
Seoul saw the sharpest decline, with approval of the president’s job performance falling 6.0 percentage points from the previous week to 29.0%, placing it in the 20% range. Approval also fell by 2.9 percentage points in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province to 29.4%, and by 2.7 percentage points in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province to 40.7%. By contrast, it rose 5.6 percentage points in Daejeon, Sejong and Chungcheong to 35.7%.
By age group, approval stood in the 20% range among those aged 18 to 29 at 28.8% and those in their 30s at 29.8%. The figures were 39.5% among people in their 60s, 41.5% among those in their 40s and 37.6% among those aged 70 or older. Among people in their 50s, approval rebounded 3.1 percentage points from the previous week to 43.9%.
In the party-approval survey, the Democratic Party of Korea recorded 41.8% and the People Power Party 37.6%. The survey was conducted on the 3rd and 4th among 1,001 people aged 18 or older nationwide.
Compared with the previous survey, support for the Democratic Party of Korea fell 1.3 percentage points, while support for the People Power Party declined 0.1 percentage points.
The Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP) recorded 4.5%, the Reform Party 2.3% and the Progressive Party 1.3%. Other parties accounted for 2.1%, while 10.5% were undecided or did not support any party.
The survey was conducted using an automated response system (ARS) with randomly generated mobile phone numbers and 100% wireless calls. The margin of error was ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and the response rate was 4.2%. Further details are available on the website of the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission.
[email protected] Choi Jong-geun Reporter