hankyoreh

A voter slips their ballot into the ballot box at a polling station in Seoul on June 1, the date of South Korea’s eighth local elections. (Yonhap News)

The voting formula that Korean men in their 20s vote for the conservatives and Korean women in their 20s vote for the liberals held true once again in the local elections on Wednesday.

When the results of exit polls jointly carried out on June 1 by Korea’s three terrestrial broadcasters (KBS, MBC and SBS) are broken down by age, they show that 65.1% of men aged 18-29 voted for candidates in the conservative People Power Party (PPP). In contrast, 66.8% of women aged 18-29 supported candidates in the liberal Democratic Party.

A similar trend was observed among voters in their 30s, with 58.2% of men in that age group supporting the PPP and 56% of women supporting the Democratic Party.

In specific elections, more than 7 out of 10 men in their 18-29 (75.1%) cast ballots for Oh Se-hoon, while a little less than 7 out of 10 women in the same age group supported Democratic Party candidate Song Young-gil (67%).

In the Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial race, 66.3% of men in their 20s and below said they voted for PPP candidate Kim Eun-hye, while 66.4% of women in that cohort voted for Democratic Party candidate Kim Dong-yeon.

The gender split between voters in their 20s was even more pronounced than in the presidential election in March. Exit polls during that election showed that 58.7% of men in their 20s supported PPP candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, while Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung received the support of 58% of women in the same age group.

“Yoon’s pledge to dismantle the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family during the presidential campaign was a symbolic incident that led to a definite split in supporters along gender lines. That split was wider in the local elections than in the presidential election because turnout was lower and more enthusiastic supporters came out to the polls,” said Lee Kang-yun, director of the Korea Society Opinion Institute, in a phone call with the Hankyoreh.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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