President Lee Jae-myung’s approval rating fell for a sixth straight week to its lowest level since taking office, according to a new Realmeter poll released Monday. The survey, commissioned by Energy Economy Daily and conducted Aug. 18-21 among 2,026 voters age 18 and older nationwide, found that 40.2% gave Lee a positive assessment of his performance, down 2.8 percentage points from the previous week.
Negative ratings rose to 56.9%, up 2.8 points from the week before and well ahead of positive views outside the margin of error. Realmeter said distrust over a housing supply dispute involving Yongsan Park, political conflict between the ruling and opposition parties over Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae’s written nomination and constitutional revision efforts, and security concerns tied to a reduction in a joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise all contributed to the decline.
In the separate party support survey, conducted Aug. 20-21 among 1,009 voters age 18 and older nationwide, the ruling Democratic Party fell 6.0 points from the previous week to 41.9%. The conservative People Power Party rose 4.5 points to 37.6%, narrowing the gap as the ruling party’s convention effect faded and internal conflict surfaced over party leadership appointments.
Other party support readings showed the Rebuilding Korea Party at 3.9%, the Reform Party at 2.0%, the Progressive Party at 2.3% and other parties at 2.5%. Unaffiliated voters accounted for 9.7% of respondents.
