55.7% oppose Kim Seung-won, 73.4% oppose Yong Hye-in as ministers [Media Tomato poll]

A majority of respondents oppose the nominations of Kim Seung-won as justice minister and Yong Hye-in as gender equality and family minister, according to a poll released Thursday. The same survey found President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating slipping into the 30 percent range, marking another record low for the poll.

According to the poll, conducted by Media Tomato at the request of News Tomato among 1,035 adults nationwide aged 18 and older from Monday to Tuesday, 55.7 percent of respondents said they opposed Kim's nomination as justice minister when asked about their stance on it. Some 30.7 percent said they supported the nomination, while 13.6 percent said they did not know.

Asked about their stance on Yong's nomination as gender equality and family minister, 73.4 percent of respondents said they opposed it, while 18.4 percent supported it and 8.3 percent said they did not know.

Meanwhile, asked how their support for President Lee had changed, 28.4 percent of respondents said they used to support him but no longer do. Another 31.4 percent said they have continued to withhold support, while 27.6 percent said they have continued to support him. About 9.6 percent said they did not support him in the past but do now, and 3.1 percent said they did not know.

By age group, more than 30 percent of respondents in their 40s and 50s said they had withdrawn their support for Lee, and the figure also topped 30 percent among those in their 30s. By region, about 30 percent of respondents in the Greater Seoul area, the Chungcheong provinces, the Honam region and the Busan-Ulsan-South Gyeongsang Province area withdrew their support. More than 30 percent of self-identified liberals also withdrew support, while more than 70 percent of Rebuilding Korea Party supporters did the same.

The same poll also asked about President Lee's job performance, with 38.2 percent of respondents rating it positively — another record low for the survey — while 58.8 percent gave a negative assessment. Compared with the previous poll conducted Aug. 22-23, the positive rating fell 1.8 percentage points from 40.0 percent, while the negative rating rose 3.9 percentage points from 54.9 percent.

The survey was conducted via automated response system calls to randomly generated mobile phone numbers. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.0 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. Further details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.