President Moon's Approval Rating Slightly Rises to 45%... "Handled COVID-19 Well" [Gallup]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] A public opinion poll showed that President Moon Jae-in's approval rating for his national administration slightly increased compared to the previous week. The government's response to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) was a contributing factor to this rise.

Korea Gallup announced on the 21st that, as a result of a survey conducted from the 18th to the 20th among 1,002 adults aged 18 and over regarding President Moon's job performance, 45% of respondents gave a positive evaluation. This is a 1 percentage point increase from the previous week. Negative evaluations decreased by 3 percentage points to 46%.

This week's approval and disapproval rates by age group were: 18?29 years old (hereafter 20s) 49% positive, 36% negative; 30s 52% positive, 41% negative; 40s 53% positive, 39% negative; 50s 44% positive, 53% negative; and 60 and over 35% positive, 57% negative.

By political party support, 83% of Democratic Party supporters and 73% of Justice Party supporters evaluated the president's job performance positively, while 92% of United Future Party supporters evaluated it negatively. Among those without party affiliation (independents), negative views were also more prevalent (positive 29%, negative 53%).

When asked the reason for their positive evaluation of the president's job performance (453 respondents), the most common response was 'COVID-19 response' (34%). This was followed by 'doing their best/working hard' (7%), 'doing well overall' (6%), 'efforts for ordinary people', 'diplomacy/international relations' (both 5%), 'welfare expansion', 'faithfulness to basics/principles/fairness' (all 4%), and 'communication' (3%).

Among those who negatively evaluated the job performance (464 respondents), the reasons cited were 'lack of solutions to economic and livelihood issues' (27%), 'overall inadequacy' (11%), 'insufficient COVID-19 response' (7%), 'autocratic/one-sided/biased', 'focus on North Korea relations/pro-North Korea tendencies' (both 6%), 'personnel issues', 'real estate policy' (both 4%), and 'tax increases' (3%).

Party support was surveyed as follows: Democratic Party 36%, United Future Party 23%, Justice Party 7%, Bareunmirae Party 4%, People's Party 2%. Other parties and groups were all below 1%. Notably, even with about 50 days left until the general election, 27% of respondents were independents without party affiliation.

In the proportional representation party voting intention survey, the results were: Democratic Party 33%, Future Korea Party 25%, Justice Party 12%, Bareunmirae Party 3%, People's Party 2%, and Democratic Peace Party 1%. In this survey as well, 22% of respondents were undecided floating voters who did not disclose their voting intention.

Gallup stated, "With the integration of several parties and the formation of new parties becoming active, the party landscape has become quite confusing. It seems that voters will need some time to properly recognize these changes."

This survey contacted 7,673 adult men and women nationwide aged 18 and over, with a final 1,002 respondents completing the survey, resulting in a 13% response rate. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For more details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.