Both Ruling and Opposition Parties Voice Concern Over Jung Won-oh’s Alleged Poll Distortion

In the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) primary for Seoul mayor, controversy is growing over preliminary candidate Jung Won-oh’s alleged "distortion of opinion polls." Park Joo-min, another DPK candidate, criticized a campaign flyer distributed by Jung’s camp that promoted poll results, calling it "a clear violation of the Public Official Election Act." Jung’s side countered that it was based on "accurate calculations." As the dispute spread within the ruling bloc, People Power Party (PPP) leader Jang Dong-hyeok also weighed in, saying that "if true, it would be a serious violation of election law."
On April 6, Park wrote on his social networking service (SNS) account that he had "received a tip that Jung’s camp produced and widely distributed campaign materials that arbitrarily processed the results of opinion polls."
According to Park, Jung’s team created promotional materials using the results of three polling agencies that measured candidate suitability among DPK supporters. Critics argue that these materials distorted the original poll findings.
Park said, "The figures at the top of the flyer were not the official approval ratings released by the polling agencies. They were numbers recalculated after arbitrarily excluding the 'don’t know' and 'no response' categories and only recomputing the ratios among the candidates," adding, "Jung highlighted and distributed these as if they were his actual support ratings. This conduct is clearly a violation of the Public Official Election Act."
He went on, "Article 96, Paragraph 1 of the Public Official Election Act stipulates that 'no one shall distort the results of opinion polls related to elections when publishing or reporting them,'" and argued, "Re-editing the figures in a way that favors a particular candidate and then publishing them is a distortion that misleads voters’ judgment."
Park continued, "Although a small note at the bottom says 'converted to percentages,' this is nothing more than sleight of hand that is more than enough to mislead ordinary voters. It constitutes the dissemination of false information under Article 250 of the Public Official Election Act," adding, "At a time just before the primary, trying to influence the election outcome by distorting public opinion breaks the framework of fair competition."
Jung’s camp responded immediately. It explained, "We recalculated the percentages accurately based on the original data and clearly indicated this on the campaign material," and insisted, "There is no 'falsehood' or 'distortion' prohibited by election law; only percentage recalculation was used."
They further added, "The reason we presented recalculated percentage figures is that, in the DPK primary voting system, the public opinion survey portion is determined using numbers that exclude 'don’t know' and 'no response' from the outset."
The People Power Party (PPP) also issued a message targeting the controversy.
Through SNS, Jang Dong-hyeok said, "There are even accusations that opinion poll results were distorted in the DPK’s internal primary," and added, "If this is true, it is a grave violation of election law."
Regarding the DPK’s announcement that it would file a complaint with the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Ethics over lawmaker Kim Jae-seop’s allegation of a "Cancún junket," Jang said, "If they are going to do that, they should also file a complaint against lawmaker Park Joo-min, who raised the opinion poll allegations," adding, "Trying to gag people will only make the suspicions grow."
Jang Ye-chan, former vice president of the Yeouido Institute, who was fined 1.5 million won for violating the Public Official Election Act and consequently lost his eligibility to run for office for five years, called on the National Election Commission (NEC) to investigate.
On SNS, Jang Ye-chan argued, "It is certain that Jung will lose his eligibility to run for office due to a violation of the Public Official Election Act," and claimed, "Compared with my case, the problems with District Chief Jung Won-oh are far more serious."
He continued, "They created figures that the polling agencies never actually measured, and the small-print note saying it was a percentage conversion cannot serve as grounds for acquittal if you follow my Supreme Court precedent," adding, "If Jung becomes the DPK candidate and somehow gets elected Seoul mayor, we will end up having to hold another election because of a Public Official Election Act violation."
He also wrote, "Why are the NEC, the prosecution service, and police—who destroyed Jang Ye-chan—letting Jung Won-oh off the hook?" and insisted, "They must immediately launch an investigation for election law violations."

haeram@fnnews.com Lee Hae-ram Reporter