With the Democratic Party of Korea's leadership race ahead of its Aug. 17 national convention tightening into an extremely close contest, clashes among the candidates have intensified by the day. Amid disputes over additional voting opportunities and the wording on regional committee banners, voices inside and outside the party say policy competition has all but disappeared.
Jung Chung-rae, one of the leadership candidates, appeared Wednesday on the YouTube program "Kim Eou-joon's Humility Is Hard News Factory" and blasted calls from some quarters to give members who had not yet voted a second chance, calling it a "voting coup."
"Candidate Kim Min-seok keeps talking about '100 percent turnout for all party members' — does that mean we keep voting until turnout actually hits 100 percent?" Jung said. "Abstaining is also an expression of intent. Once voting has ended, offering another chance to vote is nothing but after-the-fact balloting," he added.
Earlier, Supreme Council candidates seen as close to Kim had argued that members' voting rights were being curtailed because regional primary votes were wrapping up before policy speeches had been delivered.
Supreme Council candidate Im Mi-ae wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday that casting ballots "without even properly hearing each candidate's positions" was not a proper voting schedule. She added that "the contradictory schedule, which fails to properly guarantee party members' rights in a party that claims to uphold member sovereignty, must be corrected."
Rep. Im Ho-seon, vice chairman of the Democratic Party's central National Election Commission, drew a line in response, saying the voting method and schedule had been set before candidate registration and applied equally to all candidates. "Once you start changing the rules mid-election, demands to change the rules will repeat themselves at every future election," he said. Senior spokesperson Kang Jun-hyeon, speaking separately to reporters Wednesday, said the party had "no official position as of yet" on the voting procedure dispute.
The dispute over partisan banners also spilled into a public Supreme Council meeting. Jung's camp had filed a complaint with the party's National Election Commission over some regional committees hanging banners bearing Kim's campaign slogan — "100 percent turnout for all party members" — calling it favoritism toward a specific candidate.
Supreme Council member Park Gyu-hwan said Wednesday that "acts of producing and putting up banners bearing a specific candidate's primary slogan — rather than the party's official language — are occurring all over the place," adding that "using party organizations illegally to take sides with a specific candidate is, in plain terms, election fraud."
Supreme Council member Kang Deuk-gu pushed back, saying it was "an excessive stretch" to link voter-turnout banners to a specific candidate. "Rights-member turnout is currently falling short of expectations. Instead of taking issue with a specific candidate's get-out-the-vote banners, the candidates could simply put up joint banners," he said.
Meanwhile, candidate Song Young-gil held an emergency press conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday and announced that if he became party leader, he would pursue the impeachment of Chief Justice Jo Hee-dae as official party policy.
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