SEOUL, S. Korea, Jan 31 (NNN-XINHUA) – South Korean President, Moon Jae-in’s approval rating, inched down this week, as a close politician to Moon was sentenced to a two-year imprisonment, over his alleged involvement in online opinion rigging, a weekly poll showed today (Thursday).
According to the Realmeter poll, support for Moon was down 0.2 percentage points over the week to 47.5 percent this week.
The negative assessment on Moon’s management of state affairs gained 1.5 percentage points to 47.2 percent.
The daily support score for Moon, which was on the rise earlier this week, turned downward Wednesday, when Kim Kyoung-soo, governor of South Gyeongsang province, known to be close to Moon, was sentenced to two years in jail.
Right after the sentencing, Kim was put in prison over his alleged involvement in a massive rigging of Internet news comments, in favour of the then Democratic Party presidential candidate, Moon, beginning Nov, 2016.
Moon took office in May, 2017, after winning a snap presidential election, caused by the removal of the impeached President, Park Geun-hye from office, over an influence-peddling scandal.
The governor denied all charges brought against him, saying, the sentencing was based on false testimony.
Support for the ruling Democratic Party shed 0.9 percentage points over the week to 37.8 percent this week. It was followed by the main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party, of which approval rating gained 1.8 percentage points to 28.5 percent.
The minor conservative Baruen Future Party won 6.9 percent of support, while the minor progressive Justice Party garnered 6.6 percent of approval rating. The centre-left Party for Democracy and Peace had 2.4 percent of support score.
The results were based on a survey of 1,505 voters, conducted from Monday to Wednesday. It had 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.– NNN-XINHUA