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Supporting ratings for S. Korean political parties

The Democratic Party’s support ratings plunged by over four percentage points in the last week, narrowing its edge over the People Power Party (PPP) to within the margin of error, according to opinion survey results reported on Oct. 15.

Real Meter performed a survey of 1,506 voters nationwide over a three-day period beginning on Oct. 12 at the request of the TBS network (95% confidence level, margin of error ±2.5 percentage points). The results showed 31.3% of respondents expressing support for the Democratic Party, a drop of 4.3 points from the week before. The PPP rose by 1.3 points to cross the 30% line again with a 30.2% rating. The difference of 1.1 points between the two parties’ support ratings fell within the margin of error for the first time in two weeks. On a day-by-day basis, the PPP outperformed the Democratic Party on Oct. 13 by a margin of 31.2% to 30.1%, while the two parties registered identical support ratings of 30.4% on Oct. 14.

The dip in Democratic Party support was driven by declines in the Chungcheong region (13.7 points) and Gyeonggi Province/Incheon region (5.9 percentage points), voters in their 20s (13.3 percentage points) and 40s (8.3 percentage points), and progressives (13.0 percentage points).

According to Real Meter, possible factors in the Democratic Party’s slide in support ratings include the combination of a previous backlash over a letter concerning the shooting death of government official in the West Sea and the “novel” remark by Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae, combined with the escalation of the Lime/Optimus situation into an abuse of power scandal amid allegations of involvement by ruling party figures.

Approval for President Moon Jae-in stood at 45.4%, up 0.6 points from the week before. Negative assessments were down 1.8 points at 50%. The difference of 4.6 points between positive and negative ratings fell within the margin of error.

“This poll comes at a time when the parliamentary audits are midway through and amounts to an interim assessment of the audits for each of the parties,” Real Meter said.

“The biggest characteristic of the survey [findings] is that we do not see a parallel trend between the president and Democratic Party. In the audit situation with the Democratic Party and People Power Party clashing directly when the president remains out of the way, it is the Democratic Party rather than the president that is bearing much of the brunt,” it concluded.

More details can be found on the websites of Real Meter and National Election Survey Deliberation Commission (Korean only).

By Jang Na-rye, staff reporter

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