Unfavorable Polls, Blaming the Media?... Opposition's Self-Serving Interpretation

Yun Hojung "Inaccurate Polls Confuse the Public"
Lee Jae-myung "Poll Results Differ from On-site Reactions"
Meanwhile, "If I Lose This Time, My Political Life Is Over," Pleads

Yoon Ho-jung, Co-Chairman of the Emergency Response Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, is delivering a speech at the Emergency Response Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 11th. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] The Democratic Party of Korea is offering self-serving interpretations regarding the June 1 local election poll results. As the election outlook turns unfavorable, they are blaming the polls and the media, claiming they are "confusing the people's choice." There appears to be no reflection on the reasons behind the clearly changed public sentiment compared to the landslide victory in the local elections four years ago.

On the 25th, Yoon Hojung, co-chair of the Democratic Party's Emergency Response Committee, claimed at a joint meeting of the election countermeasures committee held at the National Assembly, "The biased media environment and inaccurate opinion polls are confusing the people's choice." Even with the election just a week away, as the Democratic Party's support rate shows no signs of recovery, this seems to be an attempt to block the defection of their support base by blaming the polls.

Lee Jae-myung, the overall election committee chairman, made similar claims. In an interview on the 24th with KBS Radio's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs,' regarding the poll results showing a close race between himself and Yoon Hyung-sun, the People Power Party candidate in the Incheon Gyeyang-eul parliamentary election, Lee said, "The reactions on the ground are very different from the ARS (automated response system) poll results. The accuracy is very low, and only proactive people answer the calls," adding, "'Losing in the ARS poll' might be a kind of tactic to make people give up."

However, the Democratic Party's support rate not escaping the downward trend is confirmed by various indicators. According to a party support rate survey conducted by Realmeter on 2,528 voters from the 16th to the 20th commissioned by YTN and announced on the 23rd (97% wireless, 3% wired ARS, response rate 5.1%, sampling error ±1.9 percentage points at 95% confidence level. For details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website), the People Power Party recorded 50.1%, while the Democratic Party recorded 38.6%. The Democratic Party trailed the People Power Party by 11.5 percentage points, showing a somewhat large gap.

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party candidate running in the Incheon Gyeyang-gu B by-election, is reviewing debate materials ahead of the "National Assembly By-election Gyeyang-gu B Constituency Candidate Debate" hosted by the Gyeyang-gu Election Commission, held on the 25th at the OBS Gyeongin TV studio in Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do. Photo by the National Assembly Press Photographers Group

In the metropolitan mayoral elections, the Democratic Party is in a situation where it is difficult to predict a clear advantage except in the Honam region (Gwangju, Jeonbuk, Jeonnam) and Jeju. Especially in Seoul, the biggest battleground, various polls show Democratic candidate Song Young-gil trailing People Power Party candidate Oh Se-hoon by more than 10 percentage points. In Gyeonggi Province, the support rates for Democratic candidate Kim Dong-yeon and People Power Party candidate Kim Eun-hye show a neck-and-neck race. Additionally, in the Incheon Gyeyang-eul parliamentary election, polls have repeatedly shown either a close race within the margin of error between presidential hopeful Lee Jae-myung and People Power Party candidate Yoon Hyung-sun, or even Yoon leading Lee.

Regarding this, the Democratic Party explained that there is a difference between the party's own surveys and the publicly released poll results. Kim Min-seok, co-chief of the election committee, said in an interview with MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus,' "According to the party's analysis, it is not exactly as the polls in the media show. The gap has narrowed, which was expected from the beginning," adding, "Since People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok and others have been attacking (Lee Jae-myung) so much, and as the overall election committee chairman, he had to go out to support. Now, the focus will be on Incheon."

However, while expressing doubts about the reliability of the poll results, there seems to be a growing sense of crisis within the party that they could suffer a complete defeat in the election. On the 23rd, Lee Jae-myung repeatedly appealed for support during a campaign rally, saying, "If I lose this time, my political life is over," while making a gesture of cutting his throat with his hand.