As the local elections approach, a series of controversies has arisen concerning the fairness of opinion polls conducted for the mayoral elections in northern Gyeonggi Province. Instances have been reported where specific candidates were excluded from the survey targets or where results deviated from previously declared questions, thereby raising doubts about the reliability of these opinion polls. On October 8, a company conducted an automated response survey targeting the citizens of Dongducheon regarding the upcoming mayoral election but appeared to have excluded the candidate Park Tae-hee from the list of Democratic Party contenders, questioning the grounds for this exclusion.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Election Commission has stated that the survey was not officially reported to the Opinion Poll Review Committee, and it seems to have been conducted without proper notification. While the commission noted that the determination of which candidates to include is at the discretion of the conducting agency, it acknowledged that proving a legal violation based solely on the exclusion of a candidate is challenging. In a different case regarding the Uijeongbu mayoral election, confusion surrounding the survey questions emerged when a key item was removed from the final report after being initially included in the registered questions.

The implications of these controversies are significant as they cast doubt on the integrity and reliability of the electoral process in the region. Concerns have been raised by candidates and political figures who argue that alterations to polling questions undermine the essential fairness of such surveys. The local election commission stated issues arose from the improper use of candidates' past records in the surveys, leading them to determine that the questions violated fairness standards. As these controversies unfold, scrutiny over the electoral process and the role of opinion polls in shaping public opinion will likely intensify.