Jicheon Dam Residents' Opinion Survey Dispute: "Public Opinion Manipulation" vs. "Sufficient Reliability"

Opposition Committee: "Villages with Strong Opposition Were Excluded from the Survey"
Chungnam Province: "Survey Is Reliable... No Issues"

The Jicheon Dam Opposition Committee in Cheongyang, Chungnam Province, stated on the 24th, "We strongly condemn Chungnam Governor Kim Taeheum for distorting public opinion with a biased survey."

The opposition committee held a press conference at the Chungnam Provincial Government press center that day and said, "The issue of dam construction cannot be decided by a public opinion poll. We can never tolerate attempts to push ahead with dam construction based on biased and distorted data."

They argued, "Administrative power is being abused to achieve the political goal of building the Jicheon Dam," and added, "Even the content of the questionnaire blatantly induces approval. We have also received reports that surveyors encouraged respondents to support the project."

They further pointed out, "Out of 4,506 households living within a 5km radius of the candidate site, only 1,524 households responded, and among them, 1,167 households were in favor," adding, "That is only 25%. Can this really be considered a majority?"

The opposition committee criticized, "Villages with high opposition were excluded from the survey, and the questions themselves were structured to induce approval. Such conduct is not public opinion polling, but public opinion manipulation."

The opinion survey commissioned by Chungnam Province to Realmeter was conducted from May 30 to June 5, targeting 4,506 households living within a 5km radius of the Jicheon Dam candidate site.

As a result of the survey, 1,524 households responded, and among them, 1,167 households, or 76.6%, expressed support for the project.

In response, Youngmyung Kim, Director of the Environmental and Forestry Bureau of Chungnam Province, held an emergency press conference that day and explained, "This survey was not a complete enumeration, but it targeted residents who would be directly or indirectly affected by the dam construction. We secured a meaningful number of interviews for each village and drew statistical results based on those findings."

Director Kim emphasized, "With the cooperation of village heads and other community leaders, we recruited and trained 25 surveyors to ensure balanced coverage across villages, so it was impossible for us to know the surveyors' positions on the issue. The claim that areas with high opposition were deliberately excluded makes no sense."

He added, "While it is true that some villages are located on the 5km boundary line of the planned dam site, and there were cases where surveyors faced difficulties due to mountains, roads, or other circumstances, there was no intentional omission of any villages."

Previously, Director Kim held a press conference at the provincial government press center the day before and dismissed the allegations, stating, "Not only did we secure a sufficient number of valid interviews in each village based on accurate administrative district addresses, but we also derived the results from this process, ensuring a high level of reliability."

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