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A local youth group holds a protest calling for President Yoon Suk Yeol's arrest in front of the presidential office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on Wednesday. (Yonhap) |
With support for President Yoon Suk Yeol's People Power Party plummeting after his controversial Dec. 3 martial law, over half of the respondents in a recent survey said Yoon's party should not even be considered a ruling party during his impeachment trial.
Local pollster Realmeter on Thursday revealed the results of a survey taken Wednesday on 503 voters across the country, in which 52.6 percent said the People Power Party "was not a ruling party" while Yoon's duties as the president has been suspended. Another 41.6 percent said it is the ruling party, while the rest said they are unsure.
Yoon is currently undergoing impeachment trial by the Constitutional Court, while being subject to criminal investigation for insurrection regarding his orders related to the recent short-lived martial law.
The Real Meter survey showed that 78.6 percent of the pro-liberal respondents disregarded the current ruling party, while 67.5 percent of the pro-conservative voters said it is still the ruling party.
When asked if the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea could be considered the current ruling party, 59.4 percent said they can, opposed to 39.1 percent that said they cannot.
Of respondents who said they were liberal, an overwhelming majority, 88.1 percent, said the DPK should be the new ruling party, while 68 percent of those supporting the conservative bloc said they cannot be considered as such.
This is not the first survey that showed faltering support for the embattled president's party. A Dec.12-13 survey on 1,001 voters by the same polling agency showed 52.4 percent for the Democratic Party and 25.7 percent for the People Power Party.
The disparity in support, 26.7 percent, marked the highest since Yoon Suk Yeol administration launched in May of 2022.
More specifically, the main opposition party saw its approval rating rise for the third straight week while the ruling party's support dropped for the second straight week. The People Power Party's support marked 32.3 percent in the last week of November, but saw the figures drop to 26.2 percent in the first week of December, taken immediately after Yoon's declaration of martial law.
