Democratic Party: "President Yoon's interference in the general election is excessive... Stop for even three days"

President Yoon Visits Busan on First Early Voting Day
Election Commission Criticizes Large Party Banner Ban and More

The Democratic Party criticized President Yoon Suk-yeol as the "King of Election Cheating" on the first day of early voting, pointing out his visit to Busan. The Democratic Party demanded, "The President should immediately withdraw from the general election for the remaining three days."

Kang Min-seok, spokesperson for the Democratic Party's Central Election Countermeasures Committee, criticized in a briefing on the 7th, "The President and the government's interference in the general election has gone too far."

First, Spokesperson Kang pointed out, "Despite criticism of the 'government authority election for the general election,' President Yoon embarked on a local tour 24 times over three months from January 4 to the 26th of last month," adding, "The funding promised excessively during the 'Yoon Suk-yeol Tour' exceeded 900 trillion won. The plans for securing the funds were nothing but pie in the sky." He added, "The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy could no longer tolerate this and reported President Yoon Suk-yeol to the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission for violating election laws, and the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice also reported to the Central Election Commission."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He also raised issues regarding President Yoon’s visit to Busan on the first day of early voting. Spokesperson Kang said, "Although the ‘Yoon Suk-yeol Tour’ was suspended after Cheongju on the 26th of last month, he toured Busan again on the first day of early voting," adding, "Especially at the Regional Trauma Center of Busan National University Hospital, he indirectly invoked a horrific political terror incident to attack opposition leaders, packaging it as if it were a medical policy."

Spokesperson Kang referred to media reports that the government requested ministries to show President Yoon’s promotional video the day before early voting, calling it "another example of government authority election interference."

Additionally, regarding the Central Election Commission’s ban on bringing green onions into polling stations, he called it "a topic for overseas headlines from the Election Commission," and said, "I hope the concerns that arose when President Yoon appointed his alma mater alumnus as Secretary-General of the Election Commission, which should maintain strict neutrality, do not become reality."

Spokesperson Kang warned, "Why do President Yoon and the government keep meddling in the election? The more they mobilize government authority to interfere in the election, the more reasons they give to be judged."