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| President Moon Jae-in presides over a meeting with his key aides at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap |
Speculative land buying scandal pushes down President's support rate
By Jung Da-min
A speculative land purchase scandal involving employees of a state-run housing corporation has dragged down support for President Moon Jae-in and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), becoming a major variable for the April 7 mayoral by-elections in the cities of Seoul and Busan.
Given that real estate is one of the most sensitive issues here with people suffering from high home prices, there are expectations that the effects of the incident may not stop at the by-elections but go beyond them accelerating the Moon administration into a lame-duck presidency.
According to a survey of 2,510 adults conducted by local pollster Realmeter from March 8 to 12, 37.7 percent said they believed Moon was doing a good job, down 2.4 percentage points from the previous week. Those expressing disapproval of the President's job performance continued to outnumber those expressing support, moving up 1.7 percentage points to 57.4 percent.
Realmeter noted that the illegal land speculation using classified inside information by the employees at the Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) may have affected the poll result with more and more people showing a negative sentiment toward the Moon government's housing policies.
Political commentator Choi Young-il said President Moon is not a lame duck at this point with an approval rating hovering above 30 percent and no exodus seen among his supporters, but disapproval of his job performance is growing especially over real estate policies, with more young voters and centrists turning their back on him because of the LH scandal.
"If the ruling party loses in the April 7 by-elections, it is highly likely that the lame duck phenomenon for the Moon government will be accelerated," Choi told The Korea Times.
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| Park Young-sun, ruling Democratic Party of Korea's Seoul mayoral candidate in the April 7 by-election, speaks during her visit to a local child protection institution in the Songpa District of Seoul, Monday. Yonhap |
According to the Realmeter survey, support for the DPK is also decreasing amid the scandal. In the survey, 30.1 percent of respondents supported the ruling party, down 0.9 percentage points from the week before, while 32.4 percent favored the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), up 0.4 percentage points.
The gap in approval ratings between the DPK and the PPP was larger in the Seoul metropolitan area, where the mayoral by-election will be held, with 27.6 percent of respondents from the capital supporting the ruling party, down 2 percentage points from the previous week's poll, compared to 36.4 percent supporting the PPP, up 2.2 percentage points.
Other recent surveys showed that people believe the LH scandal will be a variable in the April 7 by-elections. According to a survey of 1,000 adults conducted by pollster STI from March 12 to 13, 75.4 percent of respondents believed the LH scandal would affect the Seoul mayoral by-election, while 22. 4 percent said it would not.
The survey also showed 61.5 percent believed President Moon should make a public apology for the scandal, while 32.3 percent said this was unnecessary.
Among Seoul mayoral candidates, support for DPK candidate Park Young-sun has been on the decline, while that for both PPP candidate Oh Se-hoon and People's Party candidate Ahn Cheon-soo has been rising.
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| Oh Se-hoo, the main opposition People Power Party's candidate for the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election, left, and minor opposition People's Party candidate Ahn Cheon-soo shake hands during a joint policy vision presentation session held at a studio in Yeongdeungpo District in Seoul, Monday. Joint Press Corps |
While Oh and Ahn are talking about fielding a single unified candidate representing the opposition bloc, the STI survey showed either Oh or Ahn would beat Park easily.
"Centrist voters are fast leaning toward the opposition, and we suspect the LH scandal was the key reason," an STI official said.
Meanwhile, President Moon failed to offer an apology for the scandal Monday, only saying during a meeting with key aides at Cheong Wa Dae that the government will make every effort to prevent public officials from engaging in corrupt real estate deals, by establishing a law preventing conflicts of interest. He also said the LH scandal should not be "used" as a tool for political strife.
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