Lee Jun-seok "Only Candidate Ahn's Side Campaigns Wearing Baseball Jackets"

Lee Jun-seok SNS Raises Suspicion of Mobilizing Ahn Cheol-soo Supporters
Ahn: "No Financial Compensation Provided"

Former People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok raised suspicions about the mobilization of supporters at the speech event of Ahn Cheol-soo, a candidate for the party leadership election. Although Ahn's camp denied the allegations as groundless, Lee called for a thorough investigation.

On the afternoon of the 24th, Lee shared a YouTube video on Facebook directed at Ahn, saying, "No matter what, let's not hire part-timers for the speech venue."

In the video, the YouTuber introduced himself as a 7-year member of the Democratic Party of Korea. He claimed that he applied for a "People Power Party leadership election joint speech supporter recruitment notice" on an online part-time job recruitment site, received 60,000 won per day, and attended the speech event as a supporter of Ahn.

Former Lee Jun-seok, People Power Party leader. [Image source=Yonhap News]

In response, Ahn's camp stated through a media announcement, "We have never recruited part-time cheer squad members nor provided any monetary compensation." They added, "During the nationwide joint speech events, it was difficult to distinguish whether all attendees cheering were supporters of the candidate or not," and explained, "We never expected that a Democratic Party member would impersonate Ahn's supporters and infiltrate the event."

They further stated, "We tried to verify the person claiming to be a part-timer, but identification was impossible due to unclear identity," emphasizing, "Ahn's campaign clearly states that supporters are participating in the cheering without any illegal activities."

In response, Lee posted again on Facebook urging a thorough investigation. He said, "So, does that mean the YouTuber received money from someone other than Ahn's camp, wore Ahn Cheol-soo's clothes, and appeared at the Hongcheon speech event?" He added, "If that is the case, it is a more serious issue of election cost proxy expenditure. We must uncover the truth."

Lee raised suspicions, saying, "The party has never recruited such part-timers, and candidate Cheon Ha-ram's camp did not either. Then the remaining options are Ahn's camp, Kim Ki-hyun's camp, or Hwang Kyo-ahn's camp, but the people wearing matching baseball jackets and uniforms campaigning on site were only from Ahn's camp."