Kim Jaewon: "The ruling party is scared of my single vote and is kicking me out of the electorate... It's petty"

Kim Jae-won, Supreme Council Member of the People Power Party. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Joo-hee] Kim Jae-won, a Supreme Council member of the People Power Party who applied to be part of the Democratic Party's presidential primary national electorate, claimed that he heard news that he was excluded from the electorate.

On the 31st, in an interview with MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus,' Supreme Council member Kim said, "I keep hearing that the Democratic Party expelled me from the electorate because they are afraid of my one vote."

He added, "I heard from a Democratic Party official that my name was deleted from the electorate. I did not receive any contact from the Democratic Party to vote at all."

Earlier, on the 11th of last month, Supreme Council member Kim announced on Facebook that he had completed his application to join the Democratic Party's presidential primary electorate, sparking a controversy over 'reverse voting.' 'Reverse voting' refers to intentionally participating in the opposing party's preliminary primary opinion poll to support a candidate who seems advantageous to one's own party's candidate in the general election. In his post, Kim wrote, "My heart goes to candidate Chu Mi-ae, who appeared on TV and sang 'Female President' as her life song."

Criticism poured in from the ruling party towards Supreme Council member Kim. Lee Jae-myung, a Democratic Party presidential candidate, criticized on the 12th of last month in an interview with KBS News 9, saying, "It violates political ethics and actually constitutes obstruction of business under criminal law," adding, "No party leadership anywhere in the world has ever told their supporters to vote for a weak candidate of the opposing party. This is the first time I've seen this."

When asked, "If it is confirmed that you were expelled from the Democratic Party electorate, what do you plan to do?" Kim replied, "What a petty group of people," and said, "If they are so afraid that I might engage in reverse voting, then it seems the Democratic Party has suffered greatly from reverse voting."

When asked if this meant there was no need to include a reverse voting prevention clause, he answered, "No, that's not the issue." Regarding the controversy over whether to include a reverse voting prevention clause in the People Power Party's presidential primary, he said, "I shouldn't answer that unnecessarily."

Furthermore, he said, "Now that the support rates among candidates are narrowing, the issue of reverse voting has become more important," adding, "There is no way to block those who intend to lower the competitiveness of People Power Party candidates by entering while saying 'I support the People Power Party.'"

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