"There is no place in the world where party rules are changed in the middle of a primary election"
Broadcaster Kim Eo-jun predicted that the former leader of the Democratic Party, Lee Nak-yeon’s camp, would not be able to overturn the party primary results regarding their objection. / Photo by TBS Radio 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory' capture
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] The camp of former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yeon has officially filed an 'objection' regarding the final results of the party primary. However, broadcaster Kim Eo-jun pointed out that "overturning the results is politically impossible."
On the 11th, Kim appeared on TBS Radio's "Kim Eo-jun's News Factory" and said, "It is legally very difficult for the results to be reversed, and politically impossible."
On the previous day (the 10th), in the Democratic Party presidential primary, Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung recorded a cumulative vote rate of 50.29%, becoming the final candidate.
However, on the same day in the afternoon, Democratic Party lawmakers Seol Hoon and Hong Young-pyo, co-chairs of former leader Lee's campaign, issued an official statement saying, "We have decided to officially submit an objection regarding the invalid vote handling in the party presidential primary to the party's election commission according to the prescribed procedures."
In relation to this, lawyer Yang Ji-yeol, who appeared on "News Factory," also analyzed the objection from former leader Lee's side from a legal perspective.
Lawyer Yang explained the cumulative 50.29% vote rate received by Lee Jae-myung, saying, "According to the Democratic Party's regulations, if a candidate withdraws during the primary, their votes are counted as invalid. For example, if a candidate who received 10 votes withdraws, it is considered that 90 people voted, and receiving 50 votes out of 90 raises the vote rate to over 50%."
Lee Jae-myung barely surpassed the majority after excluding the votes of candidates who had previously withdrawn as invalid. If the votes of previously withdrawn candidates were not invalidated and were included, Lee's vote rate would fall below the majority.
However, Kim predicted that the objection from former leader Lee's camp would not be accepted.
He said, "There has never been a case where a decision made by the party affairs committee regarding presidential primary candidates was overturned through administrative litigation, and above all, since this issue arose after the primary began, it seems unlikely that the results will be reversed."
He continued, "No political party changes the rules in the middle of a primary. This is true for all parties. If someone suggests changing the rules midway because it is disadvantageous to a particular candidate, who would agree? No party in the world allows such changes," he pointed out.
He added, "If (former leader Lee's camp) had such concerns, they should have raised the issue and changed the rules before the primary started."
Lawyer Yang also explained, "Unless it is to the extent that the democratic procedure was clearly violated, the court generally does not intervene."
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