Research polls show large decrease in immobile classes

As the unfavorable storm against the National Assembly’s decision to impeach President Roh continues, the support ratings for the Uri Party continue to be strong.

According to research requested by our newspaper to be conducted by the Korea Research Center (KRC), a specialized public opinion research institution, information showed that out of 2,108 men and women over 20 years old, the parties their supporting assemblymen belong to are: Uri Party 45.2 percent; Grand National Party (GNP) 13.8 percent; Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) 4.1 percent; and the United Liberal Democrats Party 1.1 percent.

The likelihood for being elected was also higher for the Uri Party (35.1 percent), compared to the GNP (17.6 percent). However, the expectations on the likelihood for winning the election were still higher for the GNP in Young-nam province, with the rates being GNP 36.6 percent and Uri 22.9 percent in the Daegu region, and GNP 26.1 percent and Uri 24.7 percent in the Busan region.

In particular, 27.1 percent were immobile classes that answered “support no one” or “do not know,” a 20.1 percent decrease from the 47.2 percent in our February 14 research, while those who showed their intention to participate in the election vote reached 83.0 percent, implying the electors’ firm support for a particular party.

Also, 32.7 percent answered “changed in the supporting party after the impeachment vote passed the Assembly,” with the former supporting party being the GNP with 11.2 percent and the MDP with 10.1.

In relation to the question “Were President Roh’s works up until now carried out well?” 47.6 percent answered “he did well” while 39.4 percent answered “he did not do it well.” It was the first time in ten months since last May the positive evaluations exceeded the negative ones. Also, 75.7 percent answered that the Constitutional Court should not impeach the president.

The research was conducted via telephone calls with 95% sampling error and a confidence level of ±2.1% points. Detailed results can be seen from the public opinion morgue at www.donga.com.

sunny60@donga.com srkim@donga.com