Yoon's approval rating further declines ahead of general election

Politics

Published: 01 Apr. 2024, 16:06 Updated: 02 Apr. 2024, 22:26

Yoon's approval rating further declines ahead of general election

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at the Myungsung Presbyterian Church in Gangdong District, eastern Seoul, as he attends an Easter service on Sunday. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating declined for the fifth consecutive week, according to the latest Realmeter poll released on Monday. With just nine days until the April 10 general election, the liberal Democratic Party (DP) gained more support than the conservative People Power Party (PPP) outside the margin of error.

Among the 2,509 respondents aged 18 or older, 36.3 percent approved of the president's performance, which was a drop of 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous week.

The survey, conducted from last Monday through Friday, had a confidence interval of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.0 percentage points. Disapproval ratings for Yoon rose by 0.6 percentage points to 60.7 percent.

Support for Yoon from the greater Seoul area declined, with approval ratings in Seoul falling by 2.5 percentage points and in Incheon and Gyeonggi by 1.6 percentage points.

Yoon's approval ratings saw declines across different age groups except for people in their 70s and over and those in their 30s.

The DP's lead over the PPP widened beyond the margin of error for the first time in two months with just over a week until the general election.

Of the 1,004 respondents aged 18 or above, 43.1 percent showed support for the DP, rising 0.3 percentage points from the previous week. Those supporting the PPP dropped by 1.7 percentage points to 35.4 percent.

The survey, conducted for two days last Thursday and Friday, had a confidence interval of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Support for the DP increased in several regions, including Incheon, Gyeonggi and North Gyeongsang while support for the PPP notably declined by 15.3 percentage points in Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang.

Among parties with candidates running for proportional representative seats, the PPP's satellite party People Future Party received 30.2 percent of participants' support, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous week. Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk's Rebuilding Korea Party saw an increase of 1.8 percentage points compared to the previous week, resulting in a total of 29.5 percent.

These satellite parties are among the 38 parties competing in the election to fill 46 National Assembly seats by party list proportional representation. The remaining 254 seats are filled by first-past-the-post voting in directly elected regional constituencies nationwide.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]