Party condemns PPP for exploiting ballot shortage as political attack

Jung Chung-rae, the Democratic Party of Korea's chief standing campaign committee chairman, holds a press conference at the National Assembly on Thursday. [Yonhap]
Jung Chung-rae, the Democratic Party of Korea's chief standing campaign committee chairman, holds a press conference at the National Assembly on Thursday. [Yonhap]

By Joo So-hyun, The Herald Business

The Democratic Party of Korea on Thursday held the National Election Commission accountable for a ballot shortage that struck some precincts during the June 3 local elections, while condemning the People Power Party for trying to exploit the incident as a political weapon.

Kang Jun-hyeon, the Democratic Party's chief spokesperson, said in a written briefing that the ballot shortage was "an unprecedented administrative disaster and a grave negligence that cannot be tolerated under any circumstances."

"The voting rights of constituents were violated at 14 polling stations across Seoul," Kang said. "In Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, election observers were effectively left stranded after the NEC cut off all contact." He added that the commission's incompetence and irresponsibility "must be thoroughly reformed through strict accountability."

Kang then turned his criticism on the PPP, saying its conduct was "getting more outrageous by the minute" at a time when all parties should have been focused on resolving the situation and preventing a recurrence. "The moment news broke that ballots were running short on election day, the PPP launched a politically calculated offensive, throwing around talk of halting the vote count and even holding a re-election," he said.

Kang said that once it became clear Oh Se-hoon was likely to win, the PPP quietly dropped its demands as if nothing had happened, erasing all trace of its re-election argument. "When the votes favor them, it's a 'great victory.' When they don't, they call for dissolving the NEC," he said. "It is a truly convenient, opportunistic about-face."

Kang also accused the PPP of baselessly pinning the mismanagement of an independent constitutional body on the president. "It is nothing more than a childish and shallow political provocation aimed at destabilizing the Lee Jae-myung administration," he said, urging the PPP to formally state whether its demand for a re-election over the ballot shortage still stands.


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