"Cheer for Favorable Politicians, 18 Won for Unfavorable Ones"…Reading Public Sentiment Through Political Donations

Established Political Donation Culture Could Become a 'Public Sentiment Indicator'
1.2 Billion Won in Donations Poured to Sim Sang-jung Right After Presidential Vote
"Women in Their 20s and 30s Who Strategically Voted for Major Party Candidates Express Regret to Sim Through Donations"
Protests Also Made with '18 Won Donation' Reminiscent of Insults

On the 10th, at the disbandment ceremony of the Justice Party's Election Countermeasures Committee held at the National Assembly, presidential candidate Sim Sang-jung is giving a greeting.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] Shortly after the presidential election, some women who strategically voted for the two major party candidates sparked a sensation by launching a relay of donations to Sim Sang-jung, the Justice Party's presidential candidate. As a culture of sending support or protest to politicians through political donations takes root, there is an analysis that donations could become another indicator to gauge public sentiment. However, relay donations of '18 won,' which evoke abusive language, have also been criticized as a form of political terrorism.

Immediately after the presidential election vote, about 1.2 billion won in donations poured in for candidate Sim. The Justice Party analyzed that women in their 20s and 30s sent donations with a sense of apology to Sim, who ranked third with a 2.37% vote share and thus faced difficulties in receiving election expense reimbursements from the government. On the 10th, Park Won-seok, the Justice Party's public relations director, explained on his Facebook, "The 'Jimutmi' (an abbreviation of 'sorry we couldn't protect you') donations for Sim Sang-jung surged, especially from women in their 20s and 30s who had to bite their tears and vote for the lesser evil rather than the best option."

Candidate Sim also said, "The donations were a great comfort." On the same day, he held a disbandment ceremony for the election campaign headquarters at the National Assembly main building and said, "Beyond the vote share, I am deeply comforted by the hearts of the 'Jimutmi' citizens who poured 1.2 billion won in donations to the Justice Party overnight," adding, "There are many citizens who wanted to vote for Sim Sang-jung but had to swallow their tears and change their number in this close election. I ask for much support for our Justice Party's capable candidates in the upcoming local elections."

In response, the political circle evaluated that although Sim's support rate was lower than the 19th presidential election (6.17%), this event reaffirmed the support of women in their 20s and 30s for Sim. This is why there is an analysis that the scale of political donations is proportional to the number of supporters.

Actor Kim Bu-seon revealed on August 28 last year through Facebook that she sent a donation of 18 won to former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae. Photo by Kim's Facebook capture

In fact, the youngest party leader election of Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, which caused a stir in mid-last year, was somewhat predictable through the status of donations. By midnight on May 29, last year, when the party leader preliminary election was underway, Lee's total fundraising was only 50 million won, but after he stated on Facebook, "I want to create a miracle of 10,000 won donations, no more, no less," by 10 a.m. on the 30th, donations exceeded 113 million won. Eventually, Lee reached the donation limit of 150 million won in just three days.

On the other hand, some citizens express protest through the culture of political donations. This began in the 2016 impeachment crisis when '18 won donations,' reminiscent of abusive language, poured in for Saenuri Party lawmakers opposing impeachment. Yoon Mee-hyang, a Democratic Party lawmaker embroiled in a donation misuse controversy during her time with the Justice and Memory Foundation, also became the target of the '18 won remittance relay' in 2020. In August last year, actress Kim Bu-seon revealed on Facebook that she had sent an 18 won donation to former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae, who ran in the Democratic Party presidential primary, sparking attention.

However, there are also criticisms that the '18 won donations' are close to political terrorism. While it can be seen as a new form of 'political participation,' there are concerns that it could be excessive violence against non-mainstream politicians.

Meanwhile, the total amount of donations collected for members of the National Assembly last year was approximately 40.713 billion won. According to the '2021 National Assembly Members' Support Group Donation Collection Details' released by the National Election Commission on the 25th of last month, the average fundraising amount per lawmaker was 135.25 million won.

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