Lee's approval rating dips following local elections: poll

In the poll commissioned by Straight News and conducted by Jowon C&I, 50.6 percent said Lee was doing a good job, down 6.4 percentage points from the previous survey.

The negative assessment stood at 45.5 percent, while 3.9 percent of the respondents said they were undecided.

In the same survey, support for the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) stood at 41.6 percent, compared with 40.4 percent for the ruling Democratic Party.

The poll also showed that 43.1 percent of the respondents viewed the local elections as a victory for the DP, while 37.7 percent said it was a win for the opposition parties, including the PPP.

The DP won 12 of the 16 key metropolitan mayoral and gubernatorial races in the elections, but failed to secure the symbolic Seoul mayoralty, where incumbent Mayor Oh Se-hoon of the PPP secured a fifth term.

After an unprecedented shortage of ballots was reported at more than a dozen polling stations in Seoul during the elections, protesters rallied near a vote-counting facility in eastern Seoul on Wednesday for the sixth consecutive day, demanding a revote.

The survey, conducted on 2,000 adults from Saturday through Monday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on June 2, 2026. (Yonhap)