Hong Jun-pyo "Korea Gallup, Remove My Name... Suspected Bias"

Official Document Sent to Korea Gallup on the 8th

Hong Joon-pyo, Independent Member of Parliament (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Boryeong] Hong Joon-pyo, an independent lawmaker and one of the opposition presidential candidates, criticized the bias of the polling firm 'Korea Gallup' and requested that his name be excluded.

On the 8th, Hong sent an official letter containing this request to Korea Gallup.

According to Hong's side, the median value of Korea Gallup's data over the past year compared to Realmeter for Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung was 96.8%, showing almost no difference between the two polling agencies. However, Hong's figure was only 33.9%, about one-third of that. Compared to former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yeon at 78.8%, People's Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo at 67.3%, and former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl at 57.2%, Hong's numbers were relatively low.

Hong's camp stated, "Since the 19th presidential election in 2017, we have urged correction and improvement regarding the political damage caused by misleading public opinion, but the situation has not improved and has recently become more severe," adding, "The results for Hong Joon-pyo show serious bias and distortion when compared to figures for other candidates such as Lee Jae-myung."

In the next political leader preference survey conducted by Korea Gallup from the 1st to the 3rd (targeting 1,003 adults nationwide), Hong's approval rating was 1%. The order was Governor Lee at 24%, former Prosecutor General Yoon at 21%, former leader Lee at 5%, former People Power Party Supreme Council member Lee Jun-seok at 3%, leader Ahn at 2%, and former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun at 1%. (Confidence level 95%, margin of error ±3.1 percentage points. For detailed information, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.)

Hong's side emphasized, "Korea Gallup has explained the differences as due to survey methods, but when compared to results from four major polling agencies, the credibility of that claim is greatly diminished," and added, "Therefore, considering these results comprehensively, there is sufficient rationality to suspect political intent and willfulness beyond mere sampling or statistical processing errors." Korea Gallup uses wireless telephone interviews, while Realmeter uses wired and wireless ARS.

Meanwhile, Korea Gallup included former Supreme Council member Lee, who is 36 years old and constitutionally ineligible to run for president, in the survey along with other candidates. In response, former Supreme Council member Lee said, "Even if it is an open-ended response, I think it would be better not to mention my figures," and added, "I will officially request (polling agencies) after the party convention ends."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.