By Yi Whan-woo
The ruling Saenuri Party’s approval rating has dipped about 10 percentage points since Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo quit the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), amid an internal power struggle, surveys showed Friday.
The results suggest the ruling party is suffering an unexpected setback from Ahn’s departure because many modest conservatives also support the center-left politician.
It had been largely speculated that Ahn’s departure would damage the NPAD’s popularity, but the party is still more popular than his envisioned party, according to the surveys.
In a poll conducted by JoongAng Ilbo, Monday, 30.2 percent of 800 eligible voters nationwide said they would vote for Saenuri Party candidates in the general election in April.
In previous polls, ratings for the ruling party hovered around 40 percent.
The NPAD registered a 23 percent rating in the poll while 18.6 percent said they would support Ahn’s party. The survey had a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points.
A poll by Realmeter, Thursday, showed that the Saenuri Party had an approval rating of 35.2 percent, leading the NPAD at 28 percent and Ahn’s envisioned party at 16.5 percent.
However, 40.5 percent of those surveyed said they would opt for the Saenuri Party while 30 percent said they will support the NPAD if Ahn does not form a new party.
Realmeter analyzed that Ahn’s withdrawal has stirred up moderate conservatives to turn away from the Saenuri Party but has had little impact on the liberal-minded supporters of NPAD.
Ahn, an entrepreneur-turned-politician, is seen as a moderate. He said he will create a new party before the coming National Assembly elections to reform the opposition.
“Our survey shows the moderates have high expectations of Ahn’s envisioned party,” Realmeter said.
Ahn voiced a similar view.
“The recent polls showed the Saenuri Party’s approval rating has tumbled down from the 40 percent range,” he said in a radio interview, Friday. “The swing voters are now beginning to pay attention to us regarding our efforts to bring change to the main opposition. Such attention will grow if we actively compete with the NPAD.”
The Saenuri Party acknowledged that it is concerned about a further fall in its approval ratings, citing a finding from the Yeouido Institute, the party’s think tank.
“It showed that our approval rating will plunge 10 percentage points or more if we compete against both the NPAD and Ahn’s new party in the general election instead of only the NPAD,” a party official said.
Ahn served as co-chairman of the NPAD with Rep. Kim Han-gil from March to July last year after joining the Democratic Party, the NPAD’s predecessor.
Ahn and Kim stepped down from their chairmanship after the party suffered a crushing defeat in the July 2014 by-elections.
The NPAD had been embroiled in an internal power struggle involving its incumbent chairman, Rep. Moon Jae-in, and Ahn over leadership reform before the general election.
The two political bigwigs are regarded as among potential liberal candidates for the next presidential election in 2017.
In a two-way leadership race, Ahn led Moon 41 percent to 33 percent in a survey conducted by Gallup Korea from Dec. 15 to 17.
A total of 1,009 eligible voters took part and the margin of error of was 3.1 percentage points.