Reasons for Voting Yoon Seok-yeol: 'Regime Change'... Reasons for Voting Lee Jae-myung: 'Dislike of Opponent'

Korea Gallup, Post-Election Survey of the 20s Presidential Election

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol. /Photo by Asia Economy

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Yeeun] In the 20th presidential election held on the 9th, voters most frequently cited "regime change" as the reason for choosing President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol. For those who chose Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, the most common reason was "dislike of the opposing candidate."

According to a survey conducted by Gallup Korea on the 10th with 1,002 voters asking, "What was the biggest reason for voting for the presidential candidate?" (confidence level 95%, margin of error ±3.1 percentage points), the top reason for voting for President-elect Yoon was "regime change" (39%). This was followed by "dislike of the opposing candidate/better than the other" (17%), trustworthiness (15%), fairness and justice (13%), and support for the People Power Party (7%). The survey allowed voters to freely respond with up to two reasons for their vote.

As for reasons for not voting for President-elect Yoon, "lack of experience" (18%) was the most common response. This was followed by "incompetence/ignorance" (13%), prosecutorial power/prosecutorial republic (6%), and family scandals (5%).

Meanwhile, the reasons for voting for candidate Lee were "dislike of the opposing candidate/better than the other" (26%), experience and career (20%), and ability (18%). Voters who did not vote for Lee cited "lack of trustworthiness/lying" (19%) and "lack of morality" (11%) as reasons. The "Daejang-dong incident" and "corruption" were each cited by 6%.

Gallup Korea stated, "Both candidates’ reasons for not voting included 'spouse/family scandals and corruption.' This reflects the intense negative campaigning during the election period."

The timing of deciding which candidate to vote for was "more than one month before election day" at 66% (12% four weeks prior + 54% two to three months prior), while 24% decided within one week, including 6% on election day.

Regarding the most referenced sources of information when deciding whom to vote for (multiple responses allowed up to two), "television (TV) debates" was the most cited at 46%. Newspaper and broadcast news (29%) and internet news (26%) were also important sources. Social media such as Facebook and KakaoTalk accounted for 18%, family and acquaintances 12%, and election campaigns 8%.

Additionally, respondents who disclosed their voted candidate were asked whether they voted expecting the candidate to win. Among them, 69% said they voted expecting their candidate to win, while 26% said they did not. Notably, 100% of respondents who voted for Sim Sang-jung, the Justice Party presidential candidate, answered that they did not expect her to win when voting.

Gallup Korea explained, "By age group, 77% of voters in their 50s and 60s said they voted for a candidate they expected to win, but this proportion was below 60% among those in their 20s and 30s. This trend among the 20s and 30s is interpreted as expressing support for a specific candidate or policy or as a choice to prevent a candidate’s victory rather than based on the candidate’s winning chances."

This survey was conducted via telephone interviews with 90% mobile and 10% landline respondents. For more details, please refer to the Gallup Korea website or the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.

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