Support for President Lee Jae-myung's job performance fell for the eighth straight week to the lowest level since taking office, a poll found. Party support was measured at 41.8% for the Democratic Party of Korea and 37.6% for the People Power Party.
According to a survey conducted by pollster Realmeter at the request of Energy Economics News from on the 31st to on the 4th, the positive assessment of President Lee's job performance was 37.4%, down 1.5 percentage points from the previous week. It was the lowest figure in this survey since Lee took office in June last year and marked an eight-week decline.
The negative assessment was 59.5%, up 0.8 percentage point from the previous week. The gap between positive and negative assessments was 22.1 percentage points, outside the margin of error, and "don't know" was 3.1%.
Realmeter said, "As controversies over the second-term Cabinet reshuffle—such as alleged favoritism surrounding Minister nominees and the withdrawal of indictments—along with debate over a U-turn on real estate tax reform and the fallout from Cho Kuk's remarks related to the president's legal risk overlapped, negative public opinion about the government's personnel and policy credibility spread, and this trend appears to have led to the decline in support."
In the party support survey, the Democratic Party of Korea recorded 41.8%, down 1.3 percentage points, and the People Power Party was 37.6%, down 0.1 percentage point. The gap between the two parties narrowed by 1.2 percentage points to 4.2 percentage points, remaining within the margin of error for three straight weeks. The Rebuilding Korea Party was 4.5%, the Reform Party 2.3%, and The Progressive Party 1.3%. Other parties were 2.1%, and the unaffiliated were 10.5%.
On the Democratic Party, Realmeter analyzed, "Overlapping factors such as questions over the qualifications of second-term reshuffle nominees, the tug-of-war over a merger or alliance with the Rebuilding Korea Party, and internal strife over leadership ethics inspections appear to have contributed to the decline in support."
On the People Power Party, it explained, "Although it continued to go on the offensive over noise surrounding government personnel and policies, it failed to reap sufficient gains and appears to have moved sideways at a level similar to the previous week."
The presidential job performance assessment was conducted with 2,510 voters aged 18 or older via automated responses to mobile phone calls. The response rate was 4.2%, and the margin of error was ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. The party support survey targeted 1,001 voters aged 18 or older, with a response rate of 3.1% and a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.