Former Democratic Party Lawmaker Jeong Bongju's Conviction Finalized for Poll Distortion

Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal and Upholds Lower Court Ruling
"Concealing Certain Facts Undermined Election Fairness"

The Supreme Court has finalized a guilty verdict for Jeong Bongju, former member of the Democratic Party of Korea, who was put on trial for distorting the results of an intra-party primary poll during the 22nd general election to his advantage and announcing them via YouTube.

Jeong Bongju, former member of the Democratic Party of Korea. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang aymsdream@

According to the legal community on January 30, the First Division of the Supreme Court (Presiding Justice Shin Sookhee) dismissed the appeal and upheld the lower court's ruling for both Jeong and an individual identified as A, a YouTube channel official who uploaded the video, who were indicted for violating the Public Official Election Act. Previously, both the first and second trial courts had fined Jeong 3 million won and A 2 million won, respectively.

Jeong and A were indicted in February 2024 for announcing, via YouTube and other channels, the results of a poll targeting active voters-where Jeong’s support gap with then-incumbent Park Yongjin, his rival in the Democratic Party’s Gangbuk-eul primary in Seoul, was relatively small-as if it were a poll of all eligible voters.

Jeong’s camp distributed a card news graphic claiming he was trailing then-incumbent Park Yongjin, also of the Democratic Party of Korea, by 14.3 percentage points in support rate. However, according to poll results targeting all eligible voters in Gangbuk-eul, the actual gap was about 20 percentage points.

The appellate court previously stated, "By indicating the support rate in the card news without specifying that it was limited to active voters among approximately 500 men and women aged 18 and over residing in Gangbuk-eul, and instead presenting it as the overall support rate, the defendants concealed part of the facts and presented something that cannot generally be considered true, thus constituting a distortion of the poll. Such distorted poll results can mislead voters and are likely to undermine the fairness of the election."

The Supreme Court concurred with the lower courts, finding no misinterpretation of the law in the original ruling and dismissed the appeal. With the Supreme Court upholding the lower court’s guilty verdict, the conviction against the defendants is now final.