The Korea Herald

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Park’s approval ratings dip amid textbook row

By Yeo Jun-suk

Published : Oct. 26, 2015 - 16:40

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President Park`s approval rating. Yonhap President Park`s approval rating. Yonhap

President Park Geun-hye’s approval ratings have dipped amid the escalating controversy over the government’s move to adopt state-authored textbooks, a weekly poll showed Monday.

Seoul-based pollster Realmeter said that 46.9 percent of respondents considered the Park administration’s performance to be “great” or “good,” down 1.1 percentage points from last week’s survey. Of those, about 18 percent said “great” and 29 percent said “good.”

The poll questioned 2,584 adults from Oct. 19-23 with a margin of error of 1.9 percentage points.

In contrast, 48.5 percent said her performance was “very bad” or “bad” with 31.3 percent and 17.2 percent, respectively. The number rose 1.5 percentage points from the previous week.

While more people approved of Park’s job than those who didn’t, the ratio of respondents who opposed the state textbook outnumbered those who supported it, 52.7 percent to 41.7 percent.

Meanwhile, more Koreans seemed to be losing faith in the political parties with both the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy seeing their approval ratings decline.

President Park Geun-hye. Yonhap President Park Geun-hye. Yonhap

Some 41.4 percent said they supported the Saenuri Party, while 24.7 percent identified themselves as NPAD supporters -- down 1.4 percentage points and 1.6 percentage points, respectively.

Those who identified as independents marked 25.8 percent, an increase of 3.3 percentage points.

In a popularity vote on the most favorable political leader for potential presidential candidacy, Saenuri Party chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung continued his lead for the 17th week with 20.9 percent.

NPAD chairman Rep. Moon Jae-in trailed Kim with 17.8 percent. Moon was followed by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, former NPAD cochairman Rep. Ah Cheol-soo and former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon.

By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@koreaherald.com)