[AKYUNG Poll] People Want a President Who Works Well and Revives the Economy Over Morality

The Biggest Criteria for the Next National Leader
29.2% "Policy Ability, Vision Capability"
Job Creation as the Top Priority
30s Focus on Real Estate Stability and Housing Issues
Wealth Gap Seen as the Most Serious Conflict
Ideological Conflicts and Regional Disparities Follow

Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung (right) and People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl are talking at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Securities and Derivatives Market held at the Korea Exchange in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of the 3rd. Photo by National Assembly Press Photographers [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] Our people want a president who ‘works well, revives the economy, and creates many jobs.’ This greatly surpasses the public opinion that hopes for a morally excellent president.

In this poll, voters chose ‘policy capability and vision’ as the primary criterion for selecting the next national leader. Nearly one-third of respondents, 29.2%, answered this way.

Morality followed at 17.6%, then understanding of overall state affairs (13.6%), understanding of the lives of ordinary people (10.7%), and communication skills (10.2%) also ranked high.

There was no significant difference between progressives, conservatives, and moderates regarding state management ability and morality.

However, conservatives relatively valued ‘morality’ more, while progressives gave higher importance to ‘state management ability.’ Among conservatives, ‘policy capability and vision’ was 26.3%, and ‘morality’ 21.3%, showing little difference, but among progressives, ‘policy capability and vision’ was 31.7%, and morality 11.2%.

The difference in judgment criteria between the two camps reflects not only their unique likes and dislikes regarding morality but also their differing stances on Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, amid morality-related issues such as the Daejang-dong development scandal.

◆Preference for a president who solves livelihood issues= Regarding the top national agenda for the next president, demands for ‘economic’ issues were high. The largest group, 35.1%, chose ‘job creation and economic revitalization’ as the top priority.

Next were ‘real estate stabilization and housing issues’ at 22.4%, and ‘overcoming the COVID-19 crisis’ at 11.7%. All the most frequently mentioned topics were directly related to people’s daily lives.

Following were ‘resolving wealth disparity and polarization’ (10.5%), ‘constitutional amendment and political reform’ (8.1%), ‘responding to low birthrate and aging’ (6.3%), ‘North Korean nuclear issue and inter-Korean relations improvement’ (2.8%), and ‘climate change response and environmental issues’ (1.9%).

Political issues like North Korea and constitutional amendment, or topics like wealth disparity and low birthrate/aging, attracted relatively less attention.

Notably, while ‘job creation and economic revitalization’ was the top priority, some groups prioritized ‘real estate stabilization and housing issues.’ By age group, among those in their 30s, 27.7% chose ‘real estate stabilization and housing issues’ as the top priority, slightly more than the 25.1% who chose ‘job creation and economic revitalization,’ revealing that housing concerns are heavier for this generation than any other. Among Seoul voters, ‘job creation and economic revitalization’ (31.2%) and ‘real estate stabilization and housing issues’ (27.2%) showed little difference.

Additionally, the focus of priorities varied by subjective ideological orientation. Progressives prioritized ‘resolving wealth disparity and polarization’ (15.8%) more than the overall average (10.5%). Moderates showed particular interest in overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, while conservatives showed special concern for ‘job creation and economic revitalization.’

◆Agreement on the seriousness of wealth disparity... Generational conflicts vary greatly by ideology= Regarding conflicts facing our society, ‘wealth disparity’ was identified as the most serious problem. 43.4% of respondents (multiple answers allowed) cited ‘wealth disparity’ as the biggest source of conflict. This was followed by ‘ideological conflict’ (29.8%), ‘gap between metropolitan and provincial areas’ (28.9%), ‘gender conflict’ (24.2%), ‘regular vs. irregular workers issue’ (23.8%), ‘regional conflict’ (23.1%), ‘intergenerational conflict’ (23.0%), and ‘labor-management conflict’ (15.4%).

Perceptions of conflict issues also varied greatly by ideological orientation. For example, 46.3% of progressives saw ‘wealth disparity’ as serious, while only 37.6% of conservatives did.

Regarding issues like ‘gap between metropolitan and provincial areas,’ ‘regular vs. irregular workers,’ and ‘intergenerational conflict,’ many progressives viewed them as serious, but conservatives responded with relatively lower seriousness. Additionally, on gender conflict, moderates (29.5%) viewed it as more serious than progressives (24.4%) or conservatives (20.3%). This suggests that moderates may be more sensitive to gender conflict issues.

▶How the survey was conducted

This survey was conducted by Asia Economy through Win-Gi Korea Consulting targeting voters aged 18 and over nationwide on the 28th and 29th of last month, with 1,009 respondents and an overall response rate of 10.7%. The survey method was 100% mobile phone virtual number, conducted via telephone interviews. The sample was extracted using weighted values (cell weighting) by gender, age, and region based on the resident registration population as of the end of January 2021 from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For detailed survey information, refer to the Win-Gi Korea Consulting website or the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.

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