"Myung Taekyun·Kang Hyekyung Continue False Claims
Must Reveal Who Received the Poll Data"
The office of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon stated that they neither received any public opinion polls nor engaged in any financial transactions related to the involvement suspicions of political broker Myung Tae-gyun during the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election.
On the 21st, Lee Jong-hyun, Seoul City’s Public Communication Special Advisor, said, "At that time, the Oh Se-hoon candidate’s election camp did not receive or view any public opinion polls related to Mr. Myung, whether published or unpublished, except for the materials explained during the initial visit," adding, "There was a conflict between Mr. Myung and the campaign staff during his initial visit to the election camp, and after that, the campaign headquarters did not have any contact with him."
Regarding reports of financial transactions related to Mr. Myung’s public opinion polls, he explained, "The Oh candidate’s camp has never engaged in any financial transactions," and "Regarding reports that a close acquaintance of the candidate, Mr. Kim, conducted transactions with Mr. Myung, neither the candidate nor anyone in the election camp is aware of such matters. What happened between Mr. Myung and Mr. Kim and what transactions took place will be revealed through future prosecution investigations."
He also stated, "The claim that Mr. Myung handed over raw data of the public opinion polls to the candidate’s side is a clear falsehood," adding, "At that time, the method for unifying the Seoul mayoral candidates was a 100% random national public opinion poll, and the polling institutions were selected through a mutual verification process." He further said, "The claim that the data was delivered to be used as an analysis of the respondents’ tendencies, as reported by the media, is a logically inconsistent distortion."
Lee also said, "The assertion that Mr. Myung orchestrated the unification process is an absurd lie," explaining, "At that time, the unification process involved both election camps forming negotiation teams and fiercely negotiating the unification rules. It was a structure where a specific individual could not rig the process or where external manipulation could intervene."
Finally, the special advisor urged, stating that Mr. Myung and Mr. Kang continue to make 'false claims,' and called on them to "clearly disclose to whom the 2021 Seoul mayoral election public opinion poll results were provided."
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