Survey Subject Arbitrarily Distorted, Fairness Controversy... Gyeongnam Election Commission Files Complaints Against Two Polling Agencies

Gyeongnam Provincial Election Commission. / Photo by Se-ryeong Lee ryeong@

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] The Gyeongnam Provincial Election Commission's Gyeongnam Election Polling Deliberation Committee filed a complaint with the prosecution on the 16th against the representatives of two polling agencies that conducted opinion polls related to the nationwide simultaneous local elections in June, violating the method of selecting respondents.

According to the Gyeongnam Polling Deliberation Committee, the representative of polling agency A is suspected of conducting four election opinion polls in late April, reporting the survey method as wireless ARS, but used a self-owned mobile phone database of about 190,000 numbers with unclear sources and construction methods, and used certain numbers twice to increase the contact probability of specific respondents.

Additionally, the representative of polling agency B is suspected of using about 66,000 self-owned mobile phone numbers without representativeness while conducting an election opinion poll in early April at the request of a certain media outlet.

Company B did not submit the raw data despite the committee's request for data submission and submitted other materials after the deadline.

A committee official stated that according to Article 108, Paragraph 5 of the Public Official Election Act, anyone conducting an election-related opinion poll must select respondents to represent all strata of the survey target.

They explained that violating this is punishable by up to three years imprisonment or a fine of up to 3 million won under Article 256, Paragraph 1, Item 5 of the same law concerning various restriction violations.

The committee said, "If distorted election opinion poll results are announced, there is a serious risk of undermining the fairness of elections," and added, "We plan to strengthen monitoring and respond strongly to violations related to opinion polls, including filing complaints."

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