Gallup Poll Results: President Yoon's Approval Rating at 17%
People Power Party's Support Also Shows Declining Trend
President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating for his administration has hit a new low since his inauguration. While the approval ratings for President Yoon and the ruling People Power Party have declined, the Democratic Party and its leader Lee Jae-myung have shown an upward trend. Attention is focused on whether this marks the beginning of a shift in voter sentiment among those who had previously been on the sidelines.
According to a public opinion poll released on the 8th by Gallup, the evaluation that "President Yoon is performing his duties well" dropped by 2 percentage points from the previous week's survey, recording 17%. The negative evaluation, stating that he is performing poorly, rose by 2 percentage points to 74%.
Although the downward trend in President Yoon's approval rating follows the pattern seen in previous surveys, two different trends emerged in this survey.
First, despite a recent series of declines in President Yoon's approval rating, the Democratic Party had not previously benefited from a spillover effect, but this time an increase in its approval rating was confirmed. In the party support survey, the Democratic Party rose by 4 percentage points to 36%. During the same period, the People Power Party's approval rating fell by 3 percentage points compared to the previous week. Gallup explained, "The two major parties have generally been competing around the 30% mark, except during the People Power Party's primary election period after the general election, but this week the Democratic Party recorded its highest rating this year, widening the gap." In the next leader survey asking about future presidential candidates, Lee Jae-myung's approval rating rose by 4 percentage points from the fourth week of September to 29%. Han Dong-hoon, the People Power Party leader and the ruling party's top candidate, dropped by 1 percentage point to 14%.
The Gallup poll also showed a decrease in the number of respondents who identified themselves as "conservative." In the previous survey, out of 1,005 respondents, 313 (weighted to 305) identified as conservative, whereas in this survey, 277 (weighted to 283) responded as such. This suggests that conservative voters may have avoided the poll itself or that their attitudes toward political orientation have changed.
Second, the People Power Party's approval rating, which had withstood the decline in President Yoon's approval rating, also fell together. Until now, the so-called "decoupling" phenomenon, where the People Power Party's approval rating moved independently of the president's approval rating, had drawn attention to Leader Han's influence. Han was able to distance himself from President Yoon by demanding changes in government policy, but this trend appears to have weakened.
Kim Bong-shin, director at Metavoice, said, "At the midpoint of the president's term, it is unusual for the opposition party's approval rating to surpass that of the ruling party beyond the margin of error," adding, "It should be seen as a sign that conservative-leaning voters are deeply upset." Kim also stated, "President Yoon's public address to the nation will be reflected going forward, so we need to observe the subsequent trends."
This public opinion poll was conducted as part of Gallup's regular survey from the 5th to the 7th, targeting 1,002 people aged 18 and over nationwide through telephone interviews by surveyors. The sampling error was ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and the response rate was 11.8%. For detailed survey results, please refer to the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.
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