Lee Jun-seok's 'Voting Intention' Remarks... Ruling Party: "Hopes Women Would Not Vote" vs. Opposition: "For Gender Understanding"

Lee Jun-seok "Women's voting intention lower than men's" statement
Ruling party "August 19 presidential election, women's turnout higher"
Opposition "Dividing candidates as male 1 and male 2, gender division"

Lee Jun-seok, Leader of the People Power Party, Passion Train. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] Regarding Lee Jun-seok, the leader of the People Power Party, stating that "women's voting intention is lower than men's," the ruling and opposition parties have expressed opposing views.

On the 8th, Kwon Ji-woong, co-chairman of the Democratic Party's Youth Election Countermeasures Committee, appeared on KBS1 Radio's 'Joo Jin-woo Live' and criticized Lee's remarks, saying, "It seems that there was a desire for women not to come out to vote," and pointed out, "Looking at the 18th and 19th presidential elections, women voted more."

Earlier, on the 7th, Lee stated on CBS Radio's 'Hanpanseungbu,' "Women's voting intention is coming out lower than men's," and added, "I think that such an organized movement (related to women’s support for Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate) may be visible online, but it is difficult for it to appear in actual voting tendencies."

Kwon further explained, "Now, even looking at the voter surveys by the National Election Commission, data is not broken down by gender," and said, "(Considering the background of Lee’s remarks) the People Power Party has consistently discussed misogynistic issues very closely. Candidate Yoon has repeatedly stated that there is no structural gender discrimination, and there were measures such as the pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which created the misconception that problems faced by youth arise because of systems for women. Such actions have provoked backlash, and perhaps this fear led to such remarks."

In response, the People Power Party countered that it is rather the Democratic Party that is exploiting 'gender conflict.' Kim Yong-tae, a Supreme Council member of the People Power Party who appeared on the same broadcast, said, "(Lee) seemed to make these remarks to understand the tendencies of those groups in order to comprehend their class or gender," and criticized, "Former Minister Yoo Si-min appeared on an internet broadcast and divided men into '1-beon-nam' and '2-beon-nam,' which I see as political gender division." The term '1-beon-nam' refers to men supporting candidate Lee, and '2-beon-nam' refers to men supporting People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl.

Kim also referred to a video posted by former Open Democratic Party lawmaker Son Hye-won appealing to '2-beon-nam' to support candidate Lee, criticizing, "Isn't the Democratic Party using gender to divide people? It was truly shocking."