"Lee Jae-myung Imprisonment" 57.3%... "Resignation from Party Leader" 56.8%

JTBC·Global Research Opinion Poll Results

Recently, as the prosecution filed an arrest warrant for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, in connection with the Daejang-dong development and Seongnam FC sponsorship fund allegations, a public opinion poll showed that a majority believe "arrest investigation is necessary."

On the 10th, Global Research, a polling agency commissioned by JTBC, surveyed 1,042 people nationwide aged 18 and older on the 5th and 6th, asking whether they supported or opposed the arrest investigation of Lee. The results showed 57.3% said "arrest investigation is necessary," while 39.0% said "it is not necessary."

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is checking the microphone at the on-site Supreme Council meeting held at the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on the morning of the 10th. Photo by Yonhap News

By party support, among Democratic Party supporters, 79.1% said "arrest investigation is not necessary" (19.0% said necessary), whereas among People Power Party supporters, 91.8% said "necessary" (6.7% said not necessary), showing a sharp divide in opinions. Among those with no party affiliation, 53.5% said "arrest investigation is necessary," and 37.8% said "not necessary."

Earlier, on the 27th of last month, when the motion to consent to Lee’s arrest was not passed in the National Assembly, a survey on opinions regarding Lee’s leadership showed that 62.3% believed "Lee’s leadership is in crisis due to a considerable number of Democratic Party defectors," which was higher than the 34.4% who thought "since the arrest consent motion was not passed, the leadership is not in crisis."

Regarding the claim that Lee should resign from his party leadership position, 56.8% agreed, while 41.4% disagreed. Notably, 40.3% said they "strongly agree."

This survey was conducted via telephone interviews using randomly extracted virtual mobile phone numbers (100% wireless). The sampling error margin is ±3.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and the response rate was 10.3%. Statistical adjustments were made using cell weighting by gender, age, and region based on the resident registration population data announced by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety at the end of January 2023. For more details, please refer to the website of the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission.