[Polpol News] President Lee's Approval Back to High-50% Range... Support for Jung Cheongrae and Jang Donghyuk Falls

Gallup Opinion Poll
President Lee's Approval Rating Drops 2 Percentage Points from Last Week to 58%

Support ratings for President Lee Jaemyung and the Democratic Party have fallen slightly. Approval ratings for Democratic Party leader Jung Cheongrae and People Power Party leader Jang Donghyuk also showed a downward trend.

On February 6, Gallup Korea released a public opinion poll (conducted from February 3 to 5 through mobile phone interviews with 1,001 people nationwide aged 18 or older. The margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, and the response rate is 12.2%). According to the survey, 58% responded that President Lee is "doing a good job" in carrying out his duties. This is a decline of 2 percentage points compared with last week's survey. The negative evaluation that he is "doing a poor job" in performing his duties stood at 29%, the same as last week.

What stands out regarding President Lee's approval rating is that respondents on both the positive and negative sides cited real estate policy. Gallup Korea explained, "The recently announced government plan for housing supply in the Seoul metropolitan area, as well as the President's clear declaration of his firm intention regarding the end in May of the temporary suspension of heavy capital gains tax on multi-home owners, reveals contrasting views between supporters and non-supporters."

As for party support, the approval rating for the Democratic Party was 41%, down 3 percentage points from last week. Support for the People Power Party was 25%, unchanged from last week. The Cho Kuk Innovation Party recorded 3%, the Reform New Party 2%, and the Progressive Party 1%.

Regarding the local elections scheduled for June 3, 44% responded that "many candidates from the ruling party should be elected," while 32% said that "many candidates from the opposition parties should be elected." Compared with the January survey, the view favoring a ruling party victory rose by 1 percentage point, while the view favoring an opposition victory fell by 1 percentage point.

Approval ratings for leader Jung and leader Jang declined compared with the survey conducted in September last year. Regarding Jung's performance as party leader, 38% gave a positive evaluation and 45% gave a negative evaluation. In terms of positive evaluation, this is a drop of 5 percentage points from the survey conducted from September 23 to 25. For Jang, 27% gave a positive evaluation and 57% a negative evaluation; compared with the September survey, his positive rating fell by 3 percentage points.

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