Poll finds sizable lack of support for main parties with election fast approaching

General election 2024

Published: 29 Mar. 2024, 16:33 Updated: 29 Mar. 2024, 18:14

Poll finds sizable lack of support for main parties with election fast approaching

A sign outside the ballot box surveillance room at the Seoul branch of the National Election Commission in Jongno District on Friday indicates that 12 days remain before polls open for the general election. [YONHAP]

A public opinion survey released on Friday revealed that a large portion of Korean voters remain uncommitted to either major political party with just 12 days to go before the general election.

According to the survey, which was conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday, 37 percent of 1,001 respondents above the age of 18 said they support the conservative People Power Party (PPP), which is aligned with the government, while 29 percent said they supported the liberal Democratic Party (DP).

The survey had a confidence interval of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.

Compared to the previous survey, the PPP increased its support by 3 percentage points, while the DP’s support declined by 4 percentage points.

A sizable number of people appeared undecided as to whom they will support in the upcoming election, with 17 percent of survey respondents reporting no party affiliation.

Support for the new Korea Innovation Party led by former Justice Minister Cho Kuk increased by 4 percentage points to 12 percent in the latest survey. Cho is a vocal critic of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, which he has characterized as a “dictatorship run by prosecutors.”

Cho and his wife were investigated by the state prosecution service while President Yoon was prosecutor general over suspicions of falsifying their children’s academic credentials. They were both later convicted.

A National Election Commission official holds up a ballot paper for parties running for National Assembly seats filled by proportional representation next to a ballot paper for regional constituencies, where lawmakers are elected by first-past-the-post voting. In most regional constituencies, only candidates from the People Power Party and the Democratic Party are facing off. The competition is significantly stiffer for seats selected by proportional representation, for which the ballot paper this year measures 51.7 centimeters (20.3 inches), the longest in Korean history. [YONHAP]

The Korea Innovation Party is one of 40 parties running in this election for 46 National Assembly seats that are filled by party list proportional representation. The remaining 254 seats are filled by first-past-the-post voting in directly elected regional constituencies across the country.

According to Gallup, support “among [liberal] opposition parties appears to have shifted from the DP to the Korea Innovation Party,” suggesting overall support for liberals remains steady.

But in a sign of trouble for the PPP, 49 percent of respondents said “more candidates from the liberal opposition should be elected to rein in the government,” while only 40 percent said they believed “more conservative candidates should be elected to support the current administration.”

Just 34 percent of respondents said they approved of the president’s performance compared to 58 percent who said they disapproved, mirroring his ratings in the same survey conducted by Gallup the previous week.

Yoon’s hard-line stance against junior doctors on strike was selected by 25 percent of his supporters as their main reason for backing him, with foreign policy coming in second at 8 percent.

On the other hand, 23 percent of those who disapproved of Yoon cited the high cost of living and poor economic performance as their main reason, while 9 percent singled out his tendency to push policies without consensus.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]