Na Kyung-won (middle) and other lawmakers from the People’s Power Party make a statement in front of the presidential residence in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on January 6. Yonhap News

According to a poll, the approval rating of President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is under a warrant of arrest on charges of rebellion, reached 40 percent. Conservative media outlets are misleading public opinion by reporting the result of the poll, which has been circulated by the ruling People‘s Power Party (PPP) and far-right groups. However, the result was derived from a biased survey, and it is inappropriate to propagate it. The National Election Commission should thoroughly investigate the legitimacy of the survey.

On January 5, a daily newspaper commissioned KopraLab to conduct the poll in question on 1,000 men and women aged 18 or older across the country for two days from the 3rd to the 4th. By region, it was found that it exceeded 40 percent including 47 percent in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, except for the Chungcheong and Honam regions.

However, the survey consists of questions which are blatantly biased. The survey presupposes "support for Yoon" by asking respondents “How much do you support the president?” unlike an ordinary poll asking about whether they support Yoon has a questionnaire of “What do you think about the president?” The question of “What do you think about the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) forcibly detaining the incumbent president despite illegal controversy?” assumes that the CIO‘s attempt to arrest Yoon is illegal and controversial. The question, “Do you think it is necessary to publicly verify the election system to resolve the suspicion of possible hacking and fraudulent elections of the National Election Commission, which was cited as a reason for declaring martial law?” also suggests that the question is intended to elicit a specific response by referring to the hacking of the computer system and possible fraudulent elections, which Yoon cited as a reason for his martial law declaration but which turned out to be unfounded. Experts point out that this can cause respondents to hang up in the middle of the poll because they doubt the intention of questionnaires, and that the results are far from the actual public opinion because only those who answered to the end are counted. The “40 percent support for Yoon” is just the result of such a biased survey, and it is deplorable that the far-right is so encouraged by this number.

Various elections, including the presidential election, were tainted by distorted polls in the "Scandal over Myung Tae-kyun" that turned the country upside down just over a month ago. It is questionable how different this survey will be from the polls conducted by the Future Korea Research Institute, Myung’s polling agency. The National Election Commission must strictly scrutinize the survey to ensure it meets legal standards and take measures to prevent a repeat. Conservative media outlets that cite the result without verification should reflect on themselves.