Photo: NewJeans. Credit: HYBE Entertainment.
A month and a half after Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열’s self-coup attempt on December 3, polls of support for the two major parties are beginning to show the People Power Party 국민의힘 overtaking the Democratic Party 민주당 despite Yoon’s attempt to end democracy.
The reversal is highly suspect. It may be true that Yoon’s relatively quick impeachment and imprisonment have led many in the public to believe that the imminent threat to democracy is over and politics as usual has returned. Meanwhile, the PPP and the conservatives have been mounting a fierce resistance - even if it means defending Yoon’s attempt to end democracy - as they face an existential crisis if they cannot contain the fallout from Yoon’s failed coup. (See previous coverage, “Delenda Est.”)
However, it is much more likely that conservatives are pulling out all the stops to game the polls as they make their last stand. (See Starter Kit, “How Polls are Gamed in Election Time.”) On right-wing online forums, readers are commonly instructed to respond to all opinion poll phone calls, and lie about their age and party affiliation. A closer look at poll results suggests that conservatives are doing as they’ve been told. In this week’s RealMeter poll, for example, a majority of self-identified supporters of the Progressive Party 진보당 - a minor leftist party - apparently said they wanted another PPP administration.
The online media outlet Voice of Seoul 서울의소리 attempted to gauge the effect of poll respondents gaming the system. In a survey conducted for Voice of Seoul by WinG Korea 윈지코리아 on January 15 and 16, respondents who identified themselves as being in their 20s received an additional question: which popular K-pop group sang the songs Ditto and OMG? Among the self-identified respondents in their 20s who gave progressive responses, 89.7% gave the correct answer - NewJeans 뉴진스. But among the self-identified 20s with conservative responses, only 69.3% gave the correct answer.
