Oh Hageun Preliminary Candidate, Participation in Democratic Party Primary Declared Invalid... Testimony from Party Committee Member

Oh Ha-geun Preliminary Candidate Allowed to Participate in Primary Election Without Approval of Two-Thirds of the Party Committee

[Suncheon=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Following the ‘allegations of leakage of the list of party members’ and ‘allegations of support for a specific candidate by Assemblyman So Byeong-cheol’ during the Democratic Party’s Suncheon mayoral primary, new ‘allegations’ have emerged on the 8th that there were serious procedural flaws in the candidate screening process of the Democratic Party Jeonnam Provincial Party’s Nomination Management Committee (hereafter referred to as the Nomination Committee).

The Democratic Party stipulates that if an ineligible candidate is included in the primary, approval from more than two-thirds of the Nomination Committee members is required. However, Committee member A stated, “I have never once sought approval from two-thirds of the Nomination Committee members.”

In other words, in the case of candidate Oh Ha-geun, who was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year suspended sentence for embezzlement, more than two-thirds of the Nomination Committee members should have approved his participation in the primary as an ineligible candidate, but this step was omitted, resulting in a serious procedural flaw.

It is reported that such testimonies are not only from Committee member A but also from many other related parties.

At the recent Yeosu MBC debate, candidate Son Hun-mo asked, “Have you ever received a two-year suspended sentence for embezzlement?” and said, “According to the Democratic Party’s reform nomination rules, you should have been excluded from the nomination from the start. Embezzlement is not related to the democratization movement, so I’m curious how you survived.”

In response, candidate Oh Ha-geun said, “As far as I know, there is a regulation that allows reconsideration with approval from more than two-thirds of the Nomination Committee members unless it is an absolute ineligible case.”

Therefore, the claim is that since the procedure of obtaining approval from more than two-thirds of the Nomination Committee members to allow candidate Oh Ha-geun to participate in the primary was omitted, this constitutes a serious procedural flaw.

Lawyer Son Hun-mo, who was eliminated in the first primary, also stated, “After the final primary results, evidence of leakage of the list of party members and unfair election interference by the local committee is being revealed one after another,” and urged, “Candidate Oh Ha-geun, who is suspected of leaking the party member list, should be disqualified, and Committee Chair So, who violated neutrality, should resign.”

A representative from the Heo Seok campaign said, “The rule requiring approval from more than two-thirds of the Nomination Committee members is to ensure a fair and clean nomination screening,” adding, “Simply omitting this step is an unfair screening favoring a specific candidate.”

Questions were posed to Kim Seung-nam, Chairman of the Democratic Party Jeonnam Provincial Party, and Assemblyman So Byeong-cheol of Suncheon Gap regarding this controversy, but no response was received. Follow-up reporting will reflect their answers if provided.

Meanwhile, one-person protests continue in front of Assemblyman So Byeong-cheol’s Suncheon office following the previous day, and a large-scale citizen rally is scheduled for the afternoon.

A civic group official said, “Have you seen the statement released by Assemblyman So Byeong-cheol through a press release?” and added, “He claimed that the document containing party member numbers, names, resident registration numbers, and phone numbers is an unidentified source unrelated to the local committee. Then the local committee should take the lead in investigating the source, but threatening to hold those who speak about this strictly accountable?what is that?”