By Yi Whan-woo
About 77 percent of South Koreans want the Constitutional Court to uphold the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, according to a poll.
The Gallup Korea poll also showed only 18 percent want the court to nullify the impeachment, while the remaining five percent declined to answer or said they don’t mind either way.
The telephone survey was conducted on 1,010 adults from Feb. 28 to March 2. By ages, the younger generations tended to support Park’s impeachment.
Some 92 percent of those aged between 19 and 29 answered “yes” when asked whether the President should be impeached. Some 95 percent from those in their 30s and 89 percent from those in their 40s said “yes,” respectively.
Among those in their 40s, 89 percent supported Park’s impeachment, while 67 percent of the respondents in their 50s and 50 percent of those who are aged 60 or older said they want Park to be impeached.
Some 76 percent of supporters for ruling Liberty Korea Party (LKP) were against impeachment. But 66 percent of the supporters of the Bareun Party, a breakaway group from LKP’s predecessor Saenuri Party, and 97 percent of main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’ supporters backed impeachment
Regarding an investigation led by independent counsel Park Young-soo into a corruption scandal surrounding the President, 61 percent of the total respondents approved of Park’s team while other 26 percent disapproved its probe.
The 90-day investigation ended on Feb. 18, after Prime Minister and Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn refused to extend it for another 30 days.
The survey had a margin of error at 3.1 percent.
Gallup Korea said it conducted the survey in the lead-up to the Constitutional Court’s decision, possibly this week, over the impeachment motion passed by the National Assembly on Dec. 9