Only 3 in 10 voters say local elections were clean; skepticism highest among young adults, greater Seoul residents

A voter survey conducted by the National Election Commission immediately after the June 3 local elections found that only about 3 in 10 respondents said the vote was conducted cleanly — roughly half the share recorded in the two previous local election cycles.

According to the third-round voter awareness survey on the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections, obtained Tuesday by the office of People Power Party Rep. Kim Eun-hye from the National Election Commission, 30.6 percent of respondents said the elections were conducted cleanly, 30.0 percent said they were marred by irregularities, and 39.4 percent said they were neither.

The 30.6 percent "clean" rating fell well below the 65.0 percent recorded after the 2018 local elections and the 61.7 percent after the 2022 elections. The share saying the vote was tainted hit a record high. The NEC commissioned the survey to Gallup Korea, which conducted it between June 4 and June 22 among 1,539 eligible voters aged 18 and older across all 17 cities and provinces nationwide.

On whether the NEC was fulfilling its duty to remain politically neutral and carry out its work fairly, 32.3 percent said it was doing so and 33.6 percent said it was not. In the second-round survey conducted before the election, 39.4 percent had said the commission was performing well and 18.2 percent said it was not. The "performing well" figure stood at 63.9 percent in the third-round survey after the 7th local elections in 2018 and 52.4 percent after the 8th local elections in 2022.

Voters in their 20s and 30s and those in the greater Seoul area expressed the strongest skepticism about how the elections were administered. Among respondents in their 20s, 34.1 percent said the elections were tainted, as did 31.6 percent of those in their 30s. The figures were lower among voters in their 50s (25.6 percent) and those 70 and older (28.4 percent).

By region, the highest shares of respondents saying the elections were tainted came from Gyeonggi Province (39.0 percent), Gangwon Province (33.0 percent) and Seoul (31.5 percent). Relatively lower rates were recorded in the Daejeon-Sejong-Chungcheong area (16 percent), the Daegu-North Gyeongsang area (20.1 percent) and the Gwangju-Jeolla area (21.1 percent).

The NEC has typically released third-round survey results through a press release about a month after major elections, but it did not publish the findings this time. The survey was conducted before allegations surfaced of manipulation in hourly vote counts and turnout figures.

"The objective figures confirm that the infringement of voting rights has dealt a fatal blow to the younger generation's trust in South Korean democracy," Kim said. "As serious election crimes by the NEC — including the manipulation of turnout figures — are coming to light almost daily, there is a need to conduct a fresh voter awareness survey to verify the harsh reality more accurately."