Kim Pil Expresses Fatigue Over Calls from Heo Kyung-young: "Please Stop, Candidate"
Huh Kyung-young, presidential candidate of the National Revolutionary Party. Photo by Yonhap News Agency
[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Recently, the fatigue among citizens is growing due to the voting encouragement calls being made nationwide by Heo Kyung-young, the presidential candidate of the National Revolutionary Party. Previously, Heo's calls sparked controversy as they were made not only to random personal mobile phones but also to critical places like hospital emergency rooms where every second counts.
Singer Kim Pil posted on his Instagram on the 16th, writing, "Please stop calling. Candidate," along with a photo of incoming call logs starting with the '02' area code. This number is one of the random voting encouragement numbers used by Heo's campaign.
The so-called "Heo Kyung-young calls" began last November. When answered, the call starts with the introduction, "Hello, this is presidential candidate Heo Kyung-young," followed by a voice message encouraging participation in the upcoming March presidential election.
Earlier, these calls faced criticism from examinees at the end of December last year. Students waiting for additional acceptance calls for the 2022 college admissions experienced considerable confusion due to Heo's calls.
Especially, applicants to universities in the Seoul area, who were waiting for calls starting with '02', expressed dissatisfaction with Heo's calls. Through online communities for examinees, they reacted with comments such as, "What if I miss the additional acceptance call because of this call?", "Why keep calling during the already sensitive additional acceptance period?", and "Heo Kyung-young's call came from a 02 number right when the additional acceptance calls were expected."
Last month, it was claimed that phone calls from Heo Kyung-young, the presidential candidate of the National Revolutionary Party, were also made to the medical staff's work mobile phones. Photo by Twitter screenshot.
There have also been claims that the "Heo Kyung-young calls" reached medical staff's work mobile phones. A netizen tweeted last month, "Heo Kyung-young, you are free to do PR, but calling the emergency hotline work phones of specialists in emergency medicine at regional emergency medical centers?should I vote for you or not?" adding, "I was so busy I almost threw my phone on the weekend."
However, the "Heo Kyung-young calls" themselves are not illegal. They do not ask for support for a specific party or candidate but only contain simple voting encouragement messages. According to Article 58, Paragraph 2 of the Public Official Election Act, anyone can encourage participation in voting. In other words, pure voting participation encouragement activities like these calls do not violate election laws.
Meanwhile, Heo recently appeared on the YouTube channel "Jin Yongjin" and said about the voting encouragement calls, "It was done legally. We hired a professional service. The phone numbers from 1 to 9 were generated by computer and sent automatically," adding, "(The cost of promotion) is in the hundreds of millions of won. (The exact amount) is a bit difficult to disclose."
When asked if there were no complaints from recipients due to the random calls, Heo replied, "There are almost none," and said, "You should consider my number as lucky."
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