The spokesperson team for Democratic Party of Korea leadership candidate Song Young-gil criticized rival candidate Jung Chung-rae on Friday, saying "a candidate who is the target of cross-voting by the People Power Party cannot lead the Democratic Party into a general election."
In a statement released that day, the team said PPP figures "who are praying for the failure of the Lee Jae Myung government are hoping for Jung Chung-rae's election" as party leader.
The statement cited a series of remarks by senior PPP figures to support the claim. Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo was quoted as saying, "An early lame-duck for the Lee Jae Myung government will be accelerated by Jung Chung-rae's re-election. I support Rep. Jung's re-election as he is the vanguard of an early lame-duck for the Lee Jae Myung government." Rep. Kwon Young-se was quoted as saying, "If Jung Chung-rae becomes party leader, the lame-duck will deepen — he is someone who has been out of step with the president." PPP spokesperson Jeong Gwang-jae, asked why he supports Jung, was quoted as saying: "I won't hide it. Jung Chung-rae must win because only then will the Democratic Party remain trapped in an ideological-party framework and be unable to expand toward the center."
Earlier, Song said on MBC Radio's "Cho Seung-won's News High Kick" on Wednesday that "PPP supporters are currently backing Jung the most," adding that polling showed "overwhelmingly high support for Jung among PPP supporters." Song went on to say, "What does that mean? PPP supporters think that if Jung Chung-rae becomes party leader, the Lee Jae Myung government will fall into a lame-duck and collapse. Aren't they essentially performing a ritual to curse the government? I am simply stating that objective reality."
The spokesperson team noted that recent polling showed Jung's support among PPP backers was overwhelming, and said "the PPP base's choice was Jang Dong-hyeok within their own party and Jung Chung-rae within the Democratic Party."
The team said it trusted the public would "understand why Song raised a warning about the possibility of an early lame-duck for the Lee Jae Myung government," and said the PPP base's preference for Jung was driven by a desire for "prolonged party-government conflict, the party becoming ideologically rigid, and President Lee's early lame-duck." The team added that the PPP's stronger-than-expected showing in the June local elections — which "even surprised the PPP itself" — lay behind this calculation, and said the party "can only be seen as pinning its hopes for victory in the upcoming general election on Jung Chung-rae's re-election."
The team said that in political circles, such backing of a specific candidate by opposition supporters — and the distorted polling effect it creates — is called "cross-voting." It added: "The Song Young-gil camp is certain. Democratic Party members have always been strategic and have faced reality squarely. The results of the Incheon-Jeju and Daegu-North Gyeongsang Province ballots, opening Saturday and Sunday respectively, will show whether the PPP base's cross-voting worked. Democratic Party members will never allow it."
The team said "the wishes of senior PPP figures and the cross-voting by PPP supporters reflected in polling will end as nothing more than a torture of false hope."
mkkang@heraldcorp.com
