‘False responses pretending to be constituents’… Sent a bunch of 167 people who interfered with public opinion polls (comprehensive)

During the June 3 local elections in the Jeonbuk region this year, respondents who interfered with the public opinion polls by posing as constituents were sent in droves.

The Jeonbuk Police Agency's Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit announced on the 5th that it had sent 167 people without detention, including 34 instigators who ordered false responses to public opinion polls and 133 simply false respondents, in Imsil-gun and Jinan-gun on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act and obstruction of business.

By region, there were 103 people in Imsil-gun (22 instigators, 81 simple respondents) and 64 in Jinan-gun (12 instigators, 52 simple respondents).

They are accused of responding to public opinion polls from September 2025 to last March as if they were residents of the area by changing their mobile phone billing address to Imsil or Jinan rather than the area where they actually reside.

The police confirmed that the instigators actively requested that their family or acquaintances change their mobile phone billing address, and that among them was Mr. A, who was running as a candidate for Jinan County mayor at the time.

Suspicions of interference with public opinion polls arose when the response rate to public opinion polls, which averaged 15%, soared to 40-50% in a survey conducted by another company around the same time.

After receiving a complaint that the public opinion polls in 8 out of 14 cities and counties in the province seemed to have been manipulated, the police selected 5 areas with high response rates and focused their investigation on Imsil and Jinan, which appeared to have over 100 false respondents.

The police, who searched and seized mobile carriers, investigated whether false responses were made in these two regions, including not only general opinion polls but also four internal opinion polls of the Democratic Party of Korea.

However, the police explained that it has not been confirmed whether bribery, such as exchanging money in exchange for manipulating public opinion polls, or whether candidates or political parties other than Mr. A were involved.

A police official explained, "In order to reveal the connection (with a candidate or political party), there must be objective data, such as confessions of false respondents, but no such evidence was found in the seized items."

He added, “We are continuing an additional investigation as we believe that false responses were made in general public opinion polls in three regions excluding Imsil and Jinan.”

In Jeonbuk, in the 8th local election, suspicions of poll manipulation arose in the internal primary for the Democratic Party of Korea's Jangsu County governor, and family members and close associates of the current and former county governors at the time were sent to trial in droves.

Even at that time, they used a method of moving the mobile phone billing address of constituents to Jangsu-gun and receiving false responses when phone polls for the primary election were called.