Hong Jun-pyo's Side Releases Recording... "Yoon Seok-yeol Camp Impersonates Party to Appeal for Support"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] The campaign team of Hong Jun-pyo, a presidential candidate from the People Power Party, released a recording, accusing the campaign of rival candidate Yoon Seok-yeol, former Prosecutor General, of "impersonating the party's name to deceive party members into believing that the party officially supports Yoon."

On the 2nd, Lee Eon-ju and Ahn Sang-soo, co-chief campaign directors of Hong's team, held a press conference titled "Condemnation of Illegal Election Activities by Yoon Seok-yeol's Campaign" at the presidential campaign office in Yeouido, Seoul, and made the announcement.

According to the recording partially released by the campaign that day, a person identifying themselves as from the "People Power Party Seongbuk Branch" was heard calling a party member and saying, "Please make sure to choose former Prosecutor General Yoon."

When the party member who received the call questioned whether this was a "violation of election law" and said, "Why is the Seongbuk Branch calling to tell me to vote for a specific candidate? I will report this," the caller corrected themselves by saying, "It's Yoon Seok-yeol's campaign."

Regarding this, Director Lee stated, "The recording has been posted on YouTube. They say such phone calls happen quite frequently," and added, "The party's election management committee must take strong action."

He also pointed out, "Since the candidate may effectively exercise nomination rights in local elections by acting on behalf of the party leader, isn't this being used as a pretext to strongly threaten through party branch chairpersons and city/provincial party chairpersons?"

Director Lee emphasized, "Forcing people to support or not support by circulating petitions or declarations of support is itself a very serious problem."

Following this, Director Ahn urged the candidates to refrain from holding party member gatherings through branch events during the remaining primary period and announced that they would accept reports of illegal election violations from the entire public.

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