Hampyeong County Governor Candidates Demand "Candidate Jeong Cheol-hee Reveal Truth of Bribery Allegations and Resign"

Joint Statement Announcement by Candidates Sang-ik Lee, Kyung-sun Shin, and Doo-sook Jung

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Candidates Lee Sang-ik, Shin Kyung-sun, and Jung Doo-sook for the Hampyeong County Governor by-election collectively stated, “Publicly clarify the truth about the distribution of money and goods, and candidate Jung Cheol-hee, who is the source of the controversy, should resign.”

In a statement on the 10th, they said, “This April 15 Hampyeong County Governor by-election requires a fair and clean election more than ever to unite the divided public sentiment of the county residents and revive the stagnant economy,” adding, “Each of our candidates is focusing on policy election campaigns based on the manifesto to establish a clean and fair election culture.”

They continued, “According to media reports, candidate Jung Cheol-hee claims, ‘There are renewed allegations of money distribution in the Hampyeong County Governor by-election, causing unrest in the local community. The areas where money was distributed are Sonbul-myeon and Haechang Village,’ and ‘Although the timing is known to be early April, the Election Commission has yet to show concrete investigation of the incident or willingness to manage a fair election.’”

Based on an audio file containing Jung’s campaign content, they stated, “Candidate Jung asked if people knew about rumors that 1 million won in cash per household was being distributed mainly in Haechang Village,” and “This has caused irreparable wounds to the residents of Haechang Village and stigmatized Hampyeong County as a hotbed of bribery and illegality.”

They added, “Following the disclosure of the report containing Jung’s claims, residents of Sonbul-myeon have been protesting continuously,” and “Candidate Jung immediately visited the village hall to apologize, which was an absurd incident.”

They said, “Such behavior is a clear illegal act that was systematically and deliberately carried out to defeat opposing candidates ahead of the preliminary election,” and “This illegal act is a serious matter that could affect the election outcome, so the truth must be clearly determined. If true, we must strongly respond so that a shameless candidate who tries to win by spreading false information can never set foot in politics again.”

Finally, they stated, “The three of us have agreed that if any candidate is found to have raised the suspicions made by Jung Cheol-hee, that candidate will take responsibility and resign,” adding, “While launching a fair election monitoring group publicly, we denounce candidate Jung Cheol-hee’s duplicity of spreading false information and conducting illegal elections behind the scenes, and at the same time urge him to take moral responsibility and resign.”

Meanwhile, on the same day, candidate Lee Sang-ik’s election headquarters filed a complaint with the Hampyeong Election Commission against candidate Jung Cheol-hee for violating the Public Official Election Act, including charges of spreading false information and defaming candidates.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.