[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Starting from the 9th, as the People Power Party transitioned to an emergency response committee system, the ruling party's next leadership candidates have simultaneously launched a campaign of 'attacking Lee Jae-myung' to assert their presence.
Among the leadership candidates, Ahn Cheol-soo, a member of the People Power Party, directly targeted Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 10th through his Facebook, saying, "If you become party leader, I sincerely hope you decide to walk the path of a ‘rational party leader’ for the entire nation, not a ‘strong party leader’ only for the hardline supporters." Lee has a cumulative vote share exceeding 70% in the party leader election, making his selection almost certain barring any surprises.
Ahn criticized the government's sale of state-owned property as "fattening the minority privileged class" and, addressing Lee’s intention to block it through amendments to the State Property Act, said, "It can only be interpreted as someone who lost the presidential election refusing to accept defeat and intending to establish a separate government within the majority party," emphasizing, "It is a natural and rational measure for the government to strengthen fiscal soundness through establishing fiscal rules, tax reform, and the sale of state-owned property."
He added, "Mr. Lee is already warning of a legislative war with fake news-like statements such as ‘trying to sell the nation's property cheaply to the rich,’ even though the sale process has not yet begun," and criticized, "The Daejang-dong development project is a representative case of enriching a small number of private interests, so I question whether he is qualified to make such remarks."
Another prominent leadership candidate, Kim Ki-hyun, also strongly criticized the voices within the Democratic Party calling for amendments to Article 80 of the party constitution, saying, "Anyone can see this is a ‘cunning party constitution amendment by Lee Jae-myung, for Lee Jae-myung.’"
On his Facebook, he pointed out that the amendment to the party constitution is "an excuse to prevent suspension from party positions based solely on indictment, under the pretext that it could be used for opposition suppression," and criticized, "Changing the ruling opposition party’s constitution just for one person, Lee Jae-myung, is truly a ‘law made for a person (爲人設法).’"
He continued, "Lee Jae-myung is a ‘department store of corruption suspicions’ overflowing with allegations such as the Daejang-dong development corruption, Baekhyeon-dong preferential treatment suspicions, illegal bribery-like donations to Seongnam FC, lawyer fee payments by proxy, and his wife Kim Hye-kyung’s misuse of corporate credit cards?so many that ten fingers are not enough to count. Given this, it’s understandable why such measures are taken," and added, "Not only the ‘complete prosecution reform’ legislation but also pushing through a bulletproof party constitution amendment to ‘maintain the leadership position even if indicted’ shows how much they are worried about what lies ahead."
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