The Democratic Party of Korea has established a 50% party member and 50% opinion poll method for the citizen participation primary as the rules for the 21st presidential election primary, but there is controversy surrounding the opinion poll method. This follows allegations that the party's election management committee is conducting the polls in a 'blackout' manner, without revealing the polling companies and the voting date for the citizen electoral group.

In particular, concerns are growing as it has belatedly emerged that one of the four polling companies has come under scrutiny for fairness during last year's general election.

According to ChosunBiz’s reporting on the 18th, the Democratic Party's election management committee stated it will not disclose the schedule or names of the polling companies for the citizen electoral group's opinion surveys. Despite criticism from both inside and outside the party, they intend to maintain their existing policy.

Lee Jae-myung, Kim Kyeong-soo, and Kim Dong-yeon, candidates for the Democratic Party of Korea presidential primary, are taking a commemorative photo after finishing the Fair Election Practice Agreement ceremony held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on Nov. 16./Courtesy of News1

◇ Prioritizing blocking 'interference operations' over reliability

The Democratic Party will conduct the citizen electoral group voting by randomly selecting two days between the 21st and 27th. They will receive 1 million designated numbers from telecommunications companies, sorted by age, region, and gender, and distribute 500,000 to each of two polling companies to conduct automatic response system (ARS) calls. The results of the opinion polls will be combined with the 'online and ARS voting' conducted with party members and national delegates during the primary.

The Democratic Party claims that not disclosing the voting schedule and the names of the companies is related to the suspected distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that disrupted access on the party's website on the 13th.

There are also concerns within the election management committee that if the voting date for the opinion polls is announced in advance, certain forces may interfere with the voting by making similar ARS calls during the same period.

A key official from the Democratic Party's election management committee stated, 'If the voting date is announced in advance, all sorts of interference actions, such as creating similar ARS scripts, could take place, which is why we have not disclosed the dates for this type of voting in the past.' They emphasized, 'This is to prevent results contaminated by voting disturbances.'

However, conducting the opinion polls in a blackout manner could result in a low ARS response rate. A low response rate would inevitably lower the reliability of the opinion polls. The Democratic Party will implement the citizen electoral group voting by attempting up to five calls to the 1 million designated numbers, and if there is no response, it will be treated as 'abstention'. Responses other than 'Democratic Party supporter' or 'non-partisan' from the supporter-related questions will also be considered invalid.

Park Beom-kye, chair of the Central Election Management Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, is making an opening remark at the first Central Election Management Committee meeting held to select candidates for the 21st presidential election at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on Nov. 14 afternoon./Courtesy of News1

◇ Controversy over the selection of firms... 'Timing of announcing results by region is an issue'

Responses from the anti-Lee Jae-myung camp regarding the primary voting method express difficulty in understanding it. The election management committee's decision to select Signal & Pulse, a company that had been criticized for unfairness in the opinion polls conducted during last year's general election, has raised concerns about bias. The election management committee had faced difficulties at that time. Representative Kim Byung-ki, known for his involvement in the selection of the polling company during the general election, is currently the head of the organization in the Lee Jae-myung camp.

The chair of the election management committee, Park Beom-gye, stated in a notice that 'at the time, the election committee judged that there were no issues with Signal & Pulse conducting the related services for the presidential primary,' adding that 'this firm, one of the ones selected this time, has been participating in the party's opinion polling services long before the last general election. Although it voluntarily opted not to conduct services related to candidate suitability evaluations during the last general election, it has not faced any sanctions from the party.'

Additionally, there are criticisms from within the party that while the election management committee does not disclose the voting process for the citizen electoral group, it immediately announces results from party member voting after each regional primary.

There is a claim that if the results from the Chungcheong and Yeongnam regional primaries are immediately disclosed, it would inevitably influence the following Honam and metropolitan area primaries as well as the citizen electoral group voting. If the well-known candidate Lee records a high vote percentage early on, fellow candidates Kim Kyeong-soo and Kim Dong-yeon may lose the opportunity to create a turnaround.

An official from a Democratic Party candidate's presidential camp stated, 'The Democratic Party's candidate for the presidential election must be flawless,' warning that 'there is a possibility of an unfair primary where extremely reasonable matters are not upheld.'