Public split on re-election: 44% in favor, 48% opposed

A new poll released Friday shows President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating has fallen sharply to 57%, down 7 percentage points from the previous survey, amid public backlash over a ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections. Opinion on holding a re-election was nearly evenly split, with 44% in favor and 48% opposed.

Gallup Korea conducted the survey from June 9 to 11 among 1,002 registered voters aged 18 and older nationwide. It found 57% gave Lee a positive job performance rating while 35% rated him negatively. Eight percent withheld judgment. Compared with Gallup Korea's third-week May survey, conducted May 19 to 21, the positive rating fell 7 percentage points and the negative rating rose by the same margin.

It is the first time Lee's approval rating has dipped into the 50s since the first week of February — roughly four months ago. His rating had surpassed 60% in the second week of February and peaked at 67% in the third week of March.

Among respondents who rated Lee positively, "economy and livelihoods" was the most cited reason at 21%, followed by "diplomacy" at 12%, "doing well overall" at 9%, "communication" at 8%, "job competence and capability" and "policies for ordinary people and welfare" at 5% each, "rising share prices" at 4%, and "drive, execution and momentum" at 3%.

Among those who rated him negatively, 16% cited "shoddy or fraudulent elections and problems with the election commission." That was followed by "economy, livelihoods and high exchange rates" at 14%, "real estate policy" at 9%, "ethical issues and avoiding his own trial" at 8%, "doing poorly overall" and "dictatorship or high-handedness" at 6% each, and "proposing a special prosecutor act to drop charges" and "excessive welfare and livelihood subsidies" at 5% each.

On the ballot shortage that occurred in some constituencies during the June 3 local elections, 67% of respondents described it as "poor election management and an infringement on voting rights." Twenty-five percent called it "evidence of illegal election interference or an attempt at electoral fraud," while 8% withheld an opinion.

The survey was conducted via telephone interviews using randomly selected virtual mobile numbers. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and the response rate was 11.3%. Further details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.


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