▲ South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks in a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa following their summit at the European Union headquarters in Brussels on June 10, 2026. (Yonhap)

president-approval rating

Lee's approval rating sharply falls after local elections: poll

SEOUL, June 11 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung's approval ratings sharply fell to 57 percent, a poll showed Thursday, amid controversy over ballot shortages that disrupted voting in parts of Seoul during last week's local elections.

In a National Barometer Survey (NBS) conducted from Monday to Wednesday, the positive assessment of Lee's performance dipped 9 percentage points from the previous poll conducted three weeks earlier.

The negative assessment rose 9 percentage points to 33 percent.

Lee's approval rating had stood at a record high of 69 percent for three consecutive NBS polls from late March through late April, before slipping to 67 percent early last month and 66 percent two weeks later.

The same poll showed that support for the ruling Democratic Party (DP) fell 4 percentage points to 41 percent from the previous survey, while the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) garnered 25 percent, up 5 percentage points.

The DP won 12 of the 16 key metropolitan mayoral and gubernatorial races in last Wednesday's elections, but failed to secure key battlegrounds, including the Seoul mayoral race and a parliamentary by-election in Busan.

On the local elections, 45 percent of the respondents said the opposition parties, including the PPP, outperformed expectations, while 31 percent said the DP showed better results than anticipated.

The survey was conducted by pollsters Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research and Hankook Research on 1,001 people aged 18 and older.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

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