Seoul: President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating has fallen for the second consecutive week, according to a survey released on Monday. This decline comes amidst ongoing controversy surrounding the government’s recent measures aimed at stabilizing the housing market.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the survey conducted by Realmeter and commissioned by a local news outlet revealed that 51.2 percent of respondents gave a positive assessment of President Lee’s job performance. This marks a 1 percentage point decrease from the previous week, while the negative assessment remained unchanged at 44.9 percent.
Realmeter attributed the president’s declining approval rating to public skepticism over the government’s October 15 housing measures, which include tighter loan regulations, and a controversy involving a high-ranking official’s alleged “gap investment.” First Vice Land Minister Lee Sang-kyeong recently faced criticism for advising potential homebuyers to wait for market stabilization while it was disclosed that he had engaged in a gap-investment scheme under South Korea’s “jeonse” system. Lee has since stepped down from his position.
Despite the decline, the pollster noted that President Lee’s approval rating was cushioned by positive assessments of his recent economic and diplomatic initiatives, including efforts to facilitate a South Korea-U.S.-China summit.
The survey, conducted with 2,519 adults from Monday to Friday last week, reported a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points and a confidence rate of 95 percent.
In a separate survey by the same pollster, involving 1,001 individuals aged 18 and over on Thursday and Friday, the approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party dropped by 2.4 percentage points to 44.1 percent. Meanwhile, support for the main opposition People Power Party rose by 0.6 percentage point to 37.3 percent. This poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, with a confidence rate of 95 percent.