Lee Jae-myung's 'Barely Making It to the Finals' Invalid Vote Controversy Reignites... Lee Sang-min: "Unless There Are Serious Issues in the Primary Process, the Result Won't Change"

[Asia Economy Reporters Oh Ju-yeon and Jeon Jin-young] Lee Sang-min, chairman of the Democratic Party's election commission, said on the 10th regarding the presidential primary results, "Unless a serious flaw in the primary process is revealed, the results will not change."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the same day, after the Democratic Party's Seoul regional primary held at the SK Handball Stadium in Olympic Park, Songpa-gu, Seoul, Chairman Lee told reporters, "If objections are raised regarding the primary results, we need to review whether the party can judge or decide on the matter, but since no such objections have been raised yet, we cannot speak hypothetically," expressing this view.

In the Democratic Party's final presidential candidate primary results, candidate Lee Jae-myung recorded a cumulative vote share of 50.29%, becoming the party's final presidential candidate. However, in the third electoral college vote announced that day, candidate Lee received 28.30%, while former leader Lee Nak-yeon received 62.37%. Since candidate Lee narrowly secured a majority, controversy arose over whether the handling of votes for candidates Jeong Se-gyun and Kim Du-kwan, who withdrew midway through the primary, could affect whether candidate Lee achieved a majority.

Article 59, Paragraph 1 of the Democratic Party's special presidential primary regulations states that "votes for withdrawn candidates shall be invalidated." The party's election commission interpreted that all votes obtained by withdrawn candidates in the primary must be invalidated. If this is applied, the vote shares of the remaining candidates will all increase. The camp of former leader Lee has objected to this interpretation during the primary process, arguing that the clause is incomplete.

Chairman Lee said, "The party regulations state that votes for candidates who withdraw midway are invalidated, and this was implemented exactly as per the regulations," adding, "There is a need to review the validity of the party regulations." He explained, "Today, the candidate was selected according to the party regulations by the vote difference (majority vote without a runoff), and the party officially issued a recommendation letter to the candidate."

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