KCSC Urges Polling Agencies with 'Biased Questions' to Comply with Election Law

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] The Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission (CESDC) has issued a 'reminder to comply with the Public Official Election Act' to a polling agency that released survey results showing that the 'opposition party judgment theory' is more dominant than the 'government judgment theory.'

According to the CESDC on the 16th, the agency receiving the reminder to comply with the election law is Korea Research. This agency conducted a public opinion survey related to the 21st general election on behalf of KBS from December 18 to 22 last year, targeting 2,000 men and women aged 19 and older.

In that survey, support for the 'conservative opposition party judgment theory' was 58.8%, opposition was 31.8%, while support for the 'government misconduct judgment theory' was 36.4%, and opposition was 54.3%.

Regarding this, the Liberty Korea Party Yeouido Institute pointed out in a press release, "Regarding the government misconduct judgment at the time, the question was designed as 'To judge the misconduct of the Moon Jae-in government, one should not vote for the ruling party, the Democratic Party of Korea,' and regarding the conservative opposition party judgment, the question was 'One should not vote for the conservative opposition party that only obstructs the government without self-reflection.'

The CESDC also emphasized, "Under the Public Official Election Act, questionnaires must not be written in a way that could be biased toward a specific party or candidate."