Kim Eo-jun: "'Gender Issue' Used as an Election Strategy... Left Deep Scars in Our Society"

20s Voters: Men Support Yoon, Women Support Lee
Kim Eo-jun "The 'Lee Dae-nam' Frame Left a Deep Wound on a Generation"

Broadcaster Kim Eo-jun criticized the use of gender issues as an election strategy in relation to the results of the 20th presidential election, calling it bad politics. Photo by TBS Citizen's Broadcasting capture.

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] On the 10th, when the election of Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, was confirmed in the 20th presidential election, broadcaster Kim Eo-jun pointed out that "using gender issues among the younger generation as an election strategy has left a deep scar on our society."

On the same day, Kim said on TBS Radio's 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory,' "Various polls claiming that candidate Yoon was overwhelmingly favored among people in their 20s were not true at all. It was the smallest margin of votes in history," adding, "As a result, the exit polls from the three major broadcasters were almost accurate." The exit polls from the three terrestrial TV stations the day before showed Yoon Seok-yeol winning with 48.4%, while Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, had 47.8%. The official count showed Yoon with 48.56% (16,394,815 votes) and Lee with 47.83% (16,147,738 votes), with Yoon winning by a narrow margin of 0.73 percentage points.

Kim noted, "From Lee Jae-myung's camp perspective, the last hope was the consolidation of female votes in their 20s and 30s, and indeed, consolidation did occur," but he added, "Looking back, I think the consolidation happened about a week too late." He continued, "For a long time, it was said that candidate Yoon was overwhelmingly ahead among people in their 20s, with ratios ranging from 7 to 3 at most, to 5 to 4 at least, but that was not true," pointing out, "According to the exit polls, candidate Lee actually led by 2% among men and women in their 20s."

In the exit polls from the three broadcasters, overall, Yoon received 45.5% support among people in their 20s, slightly trailing Lee's 47.8%. When broken down by gender, 20-something men showed strong support for Yoon at 58.7%, whereas 58.0% of 20-something women supported Lee, showing a completely opposite trend. Among those under 20, men overwhelmingly supported Yoon (58.7%), but women chose Lee (58.0%). This indicates that the youth vote showed differences according to gender.

Regarding this, Kim criticized the political circles for using gender issues as an election strategy and the media for reproducing it. He said, "I think the so-called 'Idaenam' (20-something men) frame has left too deep a wound on an entire generation," adding, "Politically exploiting the Idaenam frame is obvious, but instead of restraining it, the media played a role in amplifying and reproducing it." He further stated, "It is condoning bad politics and a shameful act. We need to think together about who will heal these very deep wounds."

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