Lee Joonseok Urges Early Voters: "Show Votes for the Future, Not Low-Level Trickery"

"Appeal to Show Votes for the Future in Early Voting"
"Emphasizes the Need to Clean Out Old-Fashioned Politicians Like Kim Jaewon"

Reform New Party presidential candidate Lee Joonseok appealed ahead of early voting, saying, "The younger generation should show their votes for the future starting from early voting, not such low-level trickery." In particular, Lee hit back at Kim Jaewon, the chief of staff who urged support for People Power Party candidate Kim Moonsoo by saying, "If you vote for Lee Joonseok, Lee Jaemyung will win," emphasizing, "Let's clean out old-fashioned politicians like Kim Jaewon once and for all."

Reform New Party presidential candidate Lee Joonseok appealed ahead of early voting, saying, "The younger generation should show their votes for the future starting from early voting, not such low-level trickery." In particular, Lee targeted Kim Jaewon, the secretary general who urged support for People Power Party candidate Kim Moonsoo by saying, "If you vote for Lee Joonseok, Lee Jae-myung will win," emphasizing, "Let's clean out the old-fashioned politicians once and for all." Reform New Party

On the 27th, Lee pointed out on his social media (SNS), "The People Power Party has maintained an ambiguous position on martial law, and former President Yoon was allowed to leave the party politely rather than being expelled, but for months, they have consistently subjected me to secondary victimization." He went on to criticize, "Now, in order to make things even worse, people like Chief of Staff Kim Jaewon are coming up with nasty tricks and using clich?d phrases like 'If you vote for Lee Joonseok, Lee Jaemyung will win.'"

In particular, regarding former lawmaker Kim Jaewon (chief of staff for People Power Party candidate Kim Moonsoo), who raised the so-called "wasted vote theory" in a radio interview the previous day by saying, "If you vote for Lee Joonseok, Lee Jaemyung will win," Lee stressed, "Let's clean out old-fashioned politicians like Kim Jaewon once and for all. Let's elect Lee Joonseok this time and make all the old guard like Kim Jaewon step down." Lee further argued that Kim's raising of the wasted vote theory was because "With the critical presidential election approaching, people like Kim Jaewon want to fight for party leadership centered around Kim Moonsoo, aiming to pursue his long-held dream of becoming mayor of Daegu in next year's local elections." He continued, "Because they are thinking about the election based on such selfish ambitions, the Kim Moonsoo campaign keeps acting in ways that make no sense." Lee again appealed to voters, "The younger generation should show their votes for the future starting from early voting, not such low-level trickery."

Meanwhile, with one week left before the presidential election, the People Power Party is employing both hardline and conciliatory tactics toward Lee Joonseok. While raising the wasted vote theory to prevent the loss of conservative votes to Lee, they are also trying to persuade and pressure him to unify candidacies. Kim Yongtae, a member of the People Power Party's emergency committee, said the previous day, "Reform New Party candidate Lee Joonseok has also declared that he will definitely prevent President Lee Jaemyung from coming to power. If that's the case, we are certainly not on different sides," and added, "I propose that the Reform New Party present the conditions for unification."

On the other hand, Lee Joonseok, at a Korea Broadcasting Journalists Club debate the previous day, firmly stated that the possibility of unifying with Kim Moonsoo was "0%," adding, "If People Power Party and candidate Kim Moonsoo are truly sincere about stopping Lee Jaemyung (the Democratic Party's presidential candidate) for the sake of the country and are willing to do anything for that, then Kim Moonsoo should simply withdraw his candidacy immediately."