President Lee Jae-myung's job approval rating fell 7 percentage points from three weeks earlier in the first Gallup Korea poll conducted after the June 3 local elections. The decline is attributed to mounting difficulties in livelihoods and the economy amid the impact of a high exchange rate, compounded by a ballot paper shortage during the local elections that spread negative evaluations.
According to Gallup Korea on Thursday, a survey of 1,002 voters aged 18 and older nationwide conducted from June 9 to 11 asked respondents about Lee's job performance. The poll found that 57% said he was "doing well," down 7 percentage points from the survey conducted three weeks earlier. It marks the first time Lee's approval rating has dropped below 60% in four months since the first week of February. Those who said he was "doing poorly" stood at 35%, up 7 percentage points from the previous survey.
The biggest reason for negative evaluations was "poor management and election fraud, and problems at the National Election Commission" (16%). Gallup Korea said, "The aftermath of the ballot paper shortage was reflected," adding, "This year's local elections were at times compared to the 2018 local elections, which were held one year after the launch of the Moon Jae-in government amid a high presidential approval rating and strong ruling party support, but they failed to meet supporters' expectations." This was followed by "the economy, livelihoods and high exchange rate" (14%), "real estate policy" (9%), and "morality issues and avoidance of his own trial" (8%) as reasons for negative evaluations.
The 7-percentage-point drop shown in this survey is the largest since Lee took office. It exceeded the decline of last December (6 percentage points), when the rating fell sharply over allegations of accepting money from the Unification Church, and that of last September (5 percentage points), when pressure for Chief Justice Cho Hee-de to resign continued. In particular, in the age-based survey, the positive rating among those aged 18 to 29 fell from 49% three weeks earlier to 41%, with some interpreting that young people's backlash against the ballot paper shortage also affected the president's approval rating.
The ruling party's support also fell. In the party support survey, the Democratic Party of Korea recorded 41%, down 4 percentage points from the previous survey. The People Power Party rose 7 percentage points from the previous survey to 29%, its highest since the launch of the Lee Jae-myung government. The gap in support between the two major parties has been narrowing, from 30 percentage points in early April to 23 percentage points in mid-May and 12 percentage points in mid-June.
This survey was conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) with randomly selected virtual mobile phone numbers. For details, refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
