[Polpol News] President Lee's Approval Rating Hits 60% in Gallup Survey... Democratic Party Support Also Rises

Gallup Opinion Poll
43% Support Ruling Party in Local Elections vs 33% for Opposition

President Lee Jaemyung's approval rating for his handling of state affairs has reached 60%. The approval rating for the Democratic Party of Korea also showed a significant increase.

According to a public opinion poll released by Gallup on January 9 (conducted from January 6 to 8 via wireless telephone interviews with 1,000 men and women aged 18 and over nationwide; margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level; response rate was 11.6%), 60% of respondents evaluated President Lee's job performance positively. This is a 5 percentage point increase compared to the previous survey conducted in the third week of last month. The negative evaluation dropped by 3 percentage points to 33% from the previous survey.

Among those who positively evaluated President Lee's administration (598 people), 30% cited diplomacy as the reason. Additionally, 14% pointed to the economy and people's livelihoods, and 9% cited communication. Of those who gave a negative evaluation (328 people), 22% cited the economy and people's livelihoods, 8% cited diplomacy, and 7% pointed to pro-China policies.

Yonhap News Agency

Gallup explained, "This week, diplomatic issues were highlighted again in the evaluation of state affairs due to the President's state visit to China," adding, "Controversies over the qualifications of Lee Hyehoon, the Minister of Planning and Budget nominee, who was appointed under the banner of unity, and the resignation of the ruling party's floor leader amid suspicions of nomination funds, were not considered major factors affecting the President's evaluation."

In the National Barometer Survey (NBS) released the previous day by Embrain Public, KSTAT Research, Korea Research, and Hankook Research (conducted from January 5 to 7 via mobile phone interviews with 1,005 men and women aged 18 and over nationwide; margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level; response rate was 18.2%), 61% of respondents gave a positive evaluation ("very good" or "good") of President Lee's administration.

The Democratic Party's approval rating also showed an upward trend, rising by 5 percentage points from the previous survey to 45%. The approval rating for the People Power Party remained unchanged at 26%. Despite various negative issues, including suspicions related to former floor leader Kim Byungki, the Democratic Party's approval rating continued to rise, with some attributing this to the impact of the Supreme Council election. Kim Bongshin, CEO of Metavoice, stated, "Looking at the recent trend, the approval ratings of the President and the Democratic Party have not shown a coupling effect," adding, "Rather than rising in tandem with the President's approval rating, the possibility of an impact from internal party elections cannot be ruled out."

Regarding the local elections scheduled for June this year, 43% of respondents said "the ruling party candidates should win more seats," while 33% said "the opposition party candidates should win more seats." In October last year, the gap was only 3 percentage points, but it has continued to widen, reaching 6 percentage points in last month's survey (announced on December 11) and 10 percentage points in this survey. However, nearly a quarter of all respondents (24%) withheld their opinion.

Regarding the election of city and provincial superintendents of education, 42% of voters said, "It would be better if progressive superintendents are elected," while 33% said, "It would be better if conservative superintendents are elected." Again, 25% of respondents withheld their opinion.

For more detailed information on the opinion polls, please refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.