JAKARTA - The approval rate for South Korean President Lee Jae Myung fell to 61 percent this week. Citing Yonhap, Friday, May 15, the decline occurred amid controversy over the special prosecutor bill proposed by the ruling party.
The bill has come under scrutiny for potentially paving the way for the dropping of charges related to Lee. The charges relate to an investigation and prosecution that was said to be "fabricated" during the previous administration under Yoon Suk Yeol.
The survey was conducted by the research institute Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday on 1,011 respondents aged 18 and over. The results, positive assessments of Lee's performance fell 3 percentage points compared to the survey two weeks ago.
Support for Lee had reached 67 percent in the fourth week of April. However, that figure dropped in two consecutive Gallup surveys to 61 percent.
Negative assessments rose 2 percentage points to 28 percent. As many as 11 percent of respondents have not made up their minds.
The economy is still the main reason for positive assessments of Lee. As many as 26 percent of respondents who gave positive assessments cited economic handling and people's livelihoods as the reason. Diplomacy followed with 10 percent, then general performance 7 percent.
Gallup noted that the South Korean benchmark stock index, KOSPI, which has risen sharply in recent months, this week approached the 8,000 level. South Korea's market capitalization has also risen to the sixth largest in the world.
However, legal issues also put pressure on public assessments. Among respondents who gave negative assessments, the two most frequently cited reasons were "over-welfare and subsidies" and "moral problems and attempts to avoid his own trial". Each was cited by 10 percent of respondents.
According to Gallup, part of the decline in support for Lee is related to the controversy over the special prosecutor bill from the ruling Democratic Party.
The bill would give independent legal advisers the authority to request the withdrawal of charges related to alleged investigations and prosecution of engineering during Yoon's administration.
Although the figure of 61 percent is still relatively high, two consecutive declines show that the controversy over the special prosecutor bill has begun to burden public assessments of Lee.
The Gallup Korea survey has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.
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