[Asia Business Daily-RealMeter Poll] President Lee's Approval Rating Falls for Second Straight Week to 35.2%

Democratic Party of Korea 35.5%, People Power Party 41.3%

President Lee Jae-myung's job approval rating edged down for the second consecutive week, remaining in the mid-30% range. Support for the Democratic Party of Korea also fell sharply, putting it in the mid-30% range.

According to the regular poll for the second week of October, conducted by polling firm Realmeter on behalf of The Asia Business Daily and released on Oct. 12, the president's job approval rating stood at 35.2%, down 2.2 percentage points from the weekly tally for the previous week (the first week of October). The poll was conducted from Oct. 6 to 8 among 1,504 eligible voters aged 18 or older nationwide using an automated response system on wireless phones. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and the response rate was 2.8%. His disapproval rating stood at 61.4% (50.5% saying he was doing a very poor job and 10.9% saying he was doing a poor job), up 1.6 percentage points from the previous week's poll.

A Realmeter official said, "It appears that unfavorable developments involving personnel, national security and real estate drove the decline in the president's approval rating, as they became central issues in the parliamentary audit. These included controversy over Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae's clash with the judiciary's independence, security disputes between the ruling and opposition parties over the landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and rising monthly rents and apartment prices in the Seoul metropolitan area."

According to the party support poll, the Democratic Party of Korea's support stood at 35.5%, down 7.0 percentage points from the previous week's poll. The People Power Party's support was 41.3%, up 2.9 percentage points. The poll was conducted from Oct. 7 to 8 among 1,004 eligible voters aged 18 or older nationwide using an automated response system on wireless phones. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and the response rate was 2.6%. Although the gap was within the margin of error, the two parties switched places in the rankings. The Rebuilding Korea Party received 6.3%, the New Reform Party 2.8%, the Progressive Party 1.2%, other parties 1.8%, and independents 11.0%.

For more details about the poll, visit the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission. Starting with the second week of October, Realmeter's regular weekly poll will be conducted and released on behalf of The Asia Business Daily.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.