By Shim Jae-yun
Staff Reporter

Many people in their 30s, who had been backing the ruling Uri Party since the presidential election in 2002, have begun to shift to support the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), according to opinion polls.

The surveys show the ruling party has been losing support from these relatively young voters.

According to a poll conducted by the Hangil Research of 1,004 adults May 13-14, 26.6 percent of the respondents expressed support for the conservative GNP, while 22.2 percent backed the Uri Party.

The outcome caught the ruling party off guard as it enjoyed an approval rating of 29.1 percent, compared with 20.5 percent for the GNP in a previous survey conducted on April 15-16.

Another survey of 700 adults conducted by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KOIS) May 13-14 supported the conclusion, reporting 27.5 percent of the interviewees expressed support for the ruling party, while 23.4 percent support the GNP.

The outcomes alarmed the governing party as the approval gap has narrowed to 4.1 percentage points from 13.4 percentage points the previous survey conducted April 15-16 showed.

Political analysts attributed the falling popularity of the ruling party to its failure in dealing with outstanding issues, including the economic sluggishness and the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs.

The ruling party suffered a humiliating defeat in the April 30 by-elections, having failed to win even a single seat out of six National Assembly seats up for grabs in the by-elections.

The analysts said those in their early 30s have begun to change their attitudes although they had previously supported the opinions of the generation called the ``386 generation,” referring to those who were born in the 1960s and attended universities in the 1980s.

The ``386 generation,” many of whom participated in the pro-democracy movement in the 1980s, had been supporting the President Roh Moo-hyun administration inaugurated in February 2002.