Revisions to Election Survey Standards Enacted from January 10

= Standards revised to improve the objectivity and reliability of election surveys  =

The National Election Survey Deliberation Commission (NESDC) revised the election survey standards to improve the objectivity and credibility of public opinion polls on elections and to solve the existing problems in election surveys that have been revealed during elections, including the 20th National Assembly elections. The changes were implemented from January 10. 

The NESDC plans to establish a collaborative system with related institutions and organizations, such as political parties, polling organizations and associations and media outlets in order to inform them about the amended election survey standards and gather opinions. 

Kim Yeong-won, Chairman of the NESDC said "A false poll will not only undermine the fair judgment of candidates and voters by distorting the will of the people, but it also has the potential to be abused in illegal campaigning. We will concentrate our efforts to maximize our ability to eliminate illegal election surveys through continuous analysis on polls trend and thorough monitoring."

Major revisions to the election survey standards are as follows:

Reinforce additional information that needs to be released when quoting the results of election surveys for publication or report.

When the results of the election surveys are quoted to publicize and report, details such as a person or entity that requested the survey, the survey institution or organization and the date and time of the survey should be submitted, in addition to the note to refer the NESDC homepage for more information. This is to provide people with easy access to the information and to better judge the survey results. 

Restrict the method of choosing respondents and type of samples used

The reliability and objectivity of election surveys are expected to be improved by limiting survey methods in which a person voluntarily participates as a respondent without a respondent selection process and surveys that use sampling that can lead to a favorable or unfavorable result for a specific political party or candidate.

Create fair questionnaires

The particular question should be composed with separate option to select no political party or candidate to support. Also, in order to create a fair questionnaire, it should include information such as the candidate’s job or career that was submitted when a preliminary candidate or candidate registered themselves. 

Include additional information when registering election surveys on the NESDC homepage

When the results of election polls are registered on the homepage of the NESDC, the information registered should not be different from the facts and in the case when election survey results are split and published and reported on a different date, the questionnaire itself and approval rating (including fitness for office and preference) should be registered together so that people can clearly understand the results of election surveys.