Public approval for President Lee Jae-myung's state administration fell for the eighth consecutive week, marking a record low since taking office, according to a poll released today.

According to the survey conducted by Realmeter commissioned by Energy Economy News on 2,510 adults aged 18 and older nationwide from August 31 to September 4, the positive evaluation of President Lee's state affairs stood at 37.4%, down 1.5 percentage points from the previous week.

The negative evaluation rose 0.8 percentage points from the previous week to 59.5%, leading the positive evaluation outside the margin of error for the sixth consecutive week.

The percentage of respondents who answered "don't know" was 3.1%.

Realmeter analyzed that "negative public opinion regarding the credibility of personnel and policies spread as controversies surrounding ministerial candidates, such as preferential treatment and suspicions over the cancellation of indictments, overlapped with controversies over policy U-turns regarding real estate tax reforms, leading to a downward trend in approval ratings."

In a party support rate survey conducted on 1,001 adults aged 18 and older nationwide on September 3 and 4, the Democratic Party of Korea recorded 41.8% and the People Power Party 37.6%.

The Democratic Party dropped 1.3 percentage points from the previous survey, while the People Power Party fell 0.1 percentage points.

Realmeter explained, "For the Democratic Party, controversies over the qualifications of ministerial candidates, nerve wars over a merger alliance with the Rebuilding Korea Party, and internal party strife surrounding ethics inspections of the leadership overlapped, acting as factors for the decline in approval ratings."

Regarding the People Power Party, it interpreted that "while continuing offensive maneuvers against government personnel and policy noise, it failed to sufficiently reap derivative benefits, resulting in figures moving sideways at levels similar to the previous week."

The Rebuilding Korea Party recorded an approval rating of 4.5%, the Reform Party 2.3%, followed by the Progressive Party at 1.3%.

Other parties stood at 2.1%, and undecided voters accounted for 10.5%.

Both surveys were conducted using a wireless automated response method.

The sample error for the presidential state administration approval rating survey was ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 4.2%.

The party support rate survey had a sample error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 3.8%.

(For further details, refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission)

(File Photo: Yonhap News)