Big data on South Korea race shows Lee piques more voter interest

Opposition candidate Yoon leads in polls but increasingly trails on social media

20220218 South Korean presidential election

Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party, left, trails Yoon Suk Yeol of the main opposition People Power Party in opinion polls, but big data suggests he is catching up. (Source photos by Reuters and Kyodo)

SOTARO SUZUKI, Nikkei Seoul bureau chief

February 23, 2022 15:45 JST

SEOUL -- Campaigning for the March 9 South Korean presidential election has kicked off. Opinion polls show that Yoon Suk Yeol of the conservative opposition People Power Party is narrowly leading Lee Jae-myung of the governing Democratic Party. What does big data, which predicted Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, say about the race?

In a Gallup Korea poll released on Feb. 18, the approval rating for Yoon stood at 41%, followed by Lee with 34%. Ahn Cheol-soo of the centrist opposition People's Party came a distant third with 11%. Most other opinion polls released by Feb. 21 showed Yoon over Lee by several percentage points, though their positions were reversed in some surveys.