hankyoreh

Protestors in front of the Central Government Complex in Seoul hold signs criticizing the government for its irresponsible handling of the Sewol crisis

By Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent

More people are planning to vote in the June 4 local elections in the wake of last month’s Sewol ferry sinking, survey results show.

With rates particularly high among greater Seoul residents and voters in their twenties to forties, analysts are predicting a strong showing by opposition candidates in the region as voters hold the Park Geun-hye administration accountable for the disastrous response to the sinking.

The survey was commissioned by the Hankyoreh the 26th anniversary of the company’s foundation and was performed by the polling organization Research Plus on Feb. 12 and 13 after being. According to its findings, 60.8% of respondents said they “certainly” planned to vote in the June 4 election, while 23.6% said they would “try to vote.”

When asked how the Sewol tragedy had affected their determination to vote, 35.2% said it had increased, compared to 21.1% who said it had decreased. Seoul had the highest rate of “increased” responses in the country, at 39.6%, with only 15.9% saying their determination had decreased. Above-average rates were also found in Incheon/Gyeonggi Province and Daejeon/Chungcheong Province, with 36.2% and 38.8% respectively reporting a greater determination to vote.

Among respondents in their thirties, 52.7% said their determination had increased, more than triple the 17.4% who said it had decreased. Similarly high rates among those in their twenties (41.1%) and forties (36.6%) suggested that more and more younger voters are planning to use the election to “pass judgment” on the ruling Saenuri Party (NFP).

Approval ratings for Saenuri and the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) candidates for municipal government head seats in the greater Seoul area showed the NPAD’s Park Won-soon leading the Saenuri’s Chung Moon-joon in Seoul by a 45.3% to 26.7% margin, the Saenuri’s Nam Kyung-pil ahead of the NPAD’s Kim Jin-pyo in Gyeonggi Province by 31.5% to 28.1%, and the NPAD‘s Song Young-gil leading the Saenuri’s Yoo Jeong-bok in Incheon by 36.5% to 25.8%.

The Saenuri Party had the highest party approval rating with 32.3%, followed by the NPAD with 25.6%, the Unified Progressive Party with 4.3%, and the Justice Party with 2.5%. Analysts noted that the NPAD candidates in the Seoul-Gyeonggi area were pulling higher approval ratings than the party as a whole.

The survey examined 700 adults over 19 years of age across the country, with an additional 500 each polled in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, using a fifty-fifty mixture of mobile phones and landlines. The confidence level was 95% with a ±3.7% margin of error and a 20.3% rate of response.

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