Reform Party chief urges voters to come to the polls to counter what he calls smear campaigns; dismisses early voting queue-cutting controversy as a misunderstanding

Lee Jun-seok, head of the Reform Party's overall election campaign committee, speaks at a field campaign strategy meeting at the Incheon campaign office of Jeong Seung-yeon, candidate for the Incheon Yeonsu-gap National Assembly by-election, on Sunday. [Yonhap]
Lee Jun-seok, head of the Reform Party's overall election campaign committee, speaks at a field campaign strategy meeting at the Incheon campaign office of Jeong Seung-yeon, candidate for the Incheon Yeonsu-gap National Assembly by-election, on Sunday. [Yonhap]

By Kim Do-yoon, The Herald Business

Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok held a field campaign strategy meeting in Incheon on Sunday, calling on voters to support by-election candidate Jeong Seung-yeon in the Yeonsu-gap district and mayoral candidate Lee Gi-bung. He accused the two major parties of forming a "vested-interest cartel" while ignoring the livelihoods of ordinary citizens.

Visiting Jeong's campaign office in Yeonsu-gu, Lee said the candidate had spent 20 years living alongside residents of the district, sharing their joys and hardships — only to see a party outsider parachuted into the seat through a "strategic nomination" just before the election. "Someone who barely knows Yeonsu was dropped into the very spot she had guarded for two decades," he said.

Lee said Jeong had shaved her head in protest after what he described as a collapse of principle and common sense, and was asking voters to correct the injustice at the ballot box. "How is that any different from a smear campaign?" he said.

Lee also addressed a controversy that arose during early voting, in which he was accused of cutting in line at a polling station. He said there had been no queue when he arrived during a quiet period, and that a voter standing in the wrong spot had questioned why he was not waiting in line. "Someone clipped those 30 seconds, added misleading subtitles and spread the frame that Lee Jun-seok is a line-cutter," he said.

"What is the way to leave no room for smear campaigns? It is for wise citizens to come out to the polls," he said, urging voters to "correct the damage left by lies with your vote."

The Reform Party said the queue-cutting controversy turned out to be a misunderstanding caused by a citizen's confusion, noting that there had been no waiting lines at either the in-district or out-of-district voting booths at the time.

Lee urged voters to cast their ballots on Tuesday, saying the two major parties hide behind their organizations while Reform Party candidates "take every attack head-on." "The one and only way to bring the truth forward sooner is your single vote on June 3," he said.


kido@heraldcorp.com