'Lee Jae-myung Elected as Effective Governor'... Nationwide No.1 with 71.2% Approval Rating

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, ranked first in the nationwide evaluation of 15 metropolitan governors' job performance.

Realmeter, a professional polling firm specializing in political surveys, announced on the 14th that in the evaluation of the job performance of 15 provincial governors nationwide conducted last month ahead of their 2nd anniversary in office, Governor Lee recorded a 71.2% approval rating ("doing well"), placing him first overall.

Since Realmeter began its first survey in 2014, this is the first time a metropolitan governor from the Seoul metropolitan area has ranked first.

In particular, in the first-year survey conducted in 2018 when Lee took office as governor of Gyeonggi Province, he recorded a 29.2% approval rating, ranking last among all metropolitan governors. At that time, Lee was plagued by allegations such as "gangster involvement" and "forced diagnosis of his older brother," and was the lowest-ranked governor with only one in four supporting him. However, after completing the first two years of his term, he ranked first in the first survey conducted in the latter half of his term.

The local political circles described this as a "dramatic change in approval ratings" and evaluated it as an "unprecedented record that transcends the regional characteristics and limitations of the Seoul metropolitan area."

Until now, the conventional wisdom in the polling industry was the "low preference for metropolitan governors in the capital area compared to high preference in local areas." Governor Lee has overturned this conventional wisdom.

Governor Lee's strong performance is also reflected in recent polls on preferred presidential candidates. In the preference poll for the next presidential candidate, Lee is narrowing the gap with former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon to around 8 percentage points, ranking second overall.

A Gyeonggi Province official analyzed, "Gyeonggi Province has not been a region where a bias toward a particular party is reflected in the governor's approval rating. This result is a genuine evaluation from the residents regarding Governor Lee's administration."

In particular, in this survey, the approval rating for "doing very well" was 44.2%, showing a large gap compared to Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeollanam-do, who ranked second overall with 26.7%.

The province expects that the overwhelming support for Governor Lee will have a positive impact on the leadership of the latter half of the Gyeonggi provincial administration.

According to the survey results, following Governor Lee were Kim Young-rok of Jeollanam-do (68.0%), Choi Moon-soon of Gangwon-do (57.0%), Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju (55.8%), and Lee Si-jong of Chungbuk (53.2%).

They were followed by Lee Cheol-woo of Gyeongbuk (52.4%), Won Hee-ryong of Jeju (52.2%), Song Ha-jin of Jeonbuk (49.6%), Kim Kyung-soo of Gyeongnam (48.8%), Yang Seung-jo of Chungnam (46.8%), Heo Tae-jeong, Mayor of Daejeon (44.7%), Park Nam-chun, Mayor of Incheon (41.9%), Lee Chun-hee, Mayor of Sejong (39.3%), Kwon Young-jin, Mayor of Daegu (37.7%), and Song Cheol-ho, Mayor of Ulsan (32.5%).