Credit: Public domain.
People Power Party chairman Lee Jun-seok 이준석 had repeatedly defended his campaign strategy based on pandering to misogynist young men while offending young women by claiming that young women’s vote cannot hurt Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열. According to Lee, women were only relying on “emotional slogans” and “slow to form their agenda.” Women were less willing to vote at any rate, said Lee, and when they did, they would split their votes between the Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung 이재명 민주당 후보 and the Justice Party candidate Sim Sang-jeong 심상정 정의당 후보. Based on this differential, Lee claimed that Yoon would prevail by as much as 10%.
The result, and the exit polls, showed otherwise. Yoon eked out a 0.73% victory in the narrowest presidential election in South Korean history. A strong turnout of young women for Lee Jae-myung was a major reason for the small gap. According to the exit poll by KBS News, 58% of women in their 20s voted for Lee while 58.7% of men in their 20s voted for Yoon. Yet because of women’s superior turnout, Lee won the 20s demographic overall, 47.8% to 45.5%.