On the 3rd, the mood in the auditorium of the National Assembly Library, where the People Power Party's headquarters for the 21st presidential election was set up, had heavily settled.
At 8 p.m. that evening, when the exit poll results from the three terrestrial broadcasters (KBS, MBC, SBS) were announced, the members of the People Power Party leadership, along with legislators and party officials gathered in the situation room, watched the broadcast without saying a word. There was not even a sigh.
Kim Yong-tae, the chairperson of the emergency response committee, after watching the election broadcast for about 20 minutes, met with reporters and left only the words, 'I will watch the counting situation with a humble heart, as the counting has begun,' before heading to the chairperson's office in the main building of the National Assembly.
Earlier, in the exit poll from the three broadcasters, the results showed that Kim Moon-soo, the presidential candidate (39.4%), was significantly behind Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party candidate (51.7%), by 12.4 percentage points, leading to silence in the situation room. Some legislators shook their heads or let out light sighs. As the regional expected vote rates from the exit polls were announced, the mood further sank. In particular, when the votes in Daegu and Gyeongbuk, which are known as the 'conservative stronghold,' were observed to be in the 60% range, they could not hide their disappointed expressions. Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader, even looked up.
The floor leader Kweon and the general director of the Central Election Committee, Yoon Jae-ok, along with co-chairs Kim Ki-hyun and Yoon Sang-hyun, left their seats shortly after 10 minutes of the exit poll announcement.
Na Kyung-won, the co-chairperson of the election campaign, said in a KBS interview immediately after the announcement of the exit poll, 'I expected that we would be slightly behind or slightly ahead within the margin of error, but the significant difference is very disappointing,' and noted, 'It is being received somewhat shockingly.'
Chairperson Na said, 'Due to some confusion within the party, we started the election late, and it is regrettable that various adverse factors revealing the essence of candidate Lee Jae-myung, which emerged at the last moment of the election, were not properly known.'
The exit poll conducted that day was carried out by the 'joint prediction survey committee (KEP)' composed of the broadcasting association and the three terrestrial broadcasters (KBS, MBC, SBS) at 325 polling stations across the country, targeting 80,146 voters. The margin of error for this exit poll is ±0.8 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.