Credit: Public domain.
As they process their crushing loss in the recent Seoul Gangseo-gu District chief 강서구청장 by-election, South Korea’s conservatives are turning to what has become a favorite coping mechanism since the Moon Jae-in 문재인 administration: election denial. After the Democratic Party 민주당 won a historic landslide in the 2020 Assembly Election 총선, a significant portion of conservatives, led by former Prime Minister Hwang Gyo-an 황교안, claimed that the liberals stole the election with the help of either North Korean hackers or Chinese nationals secretly voting in South Korea.
Even among conservatives, such claims were limited to the lunatic fringe even a few years ago, with prominent right wing politicians like Lee Jun-seok 이준석 deriding them as a baseless conspiracy theory. But since then, election denial became a mainstream belief among South Korean conservatives today. In a recent poll by Weekly Chosun 주간조선 of voters in the Seoul metro area, 38.2% said they believed the claim that “election results have been manipulated by outside hackers in the past”.
Among People Power Party 국민의힘 supporters, however, 56.3% of respondents said they believed the claim. The Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열 administration has been pushing this conspiracy theory as well, by persistently questioning the neutrality of the National Elections Commission 선거관리위원회 and having the spy agency investigate the NEC.
