Hong Side Releases Recording of Yoon Camp 'Encouraging Support'... Yoon Side Says "Legitimate Election Campaign" (Summary)

Hong Jun-pyo's Side: "Party Name Impersonation, Deceptive Act"
Yoon Seok-yeol's Side: "Party Rules, Not a Violation of Election Law"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] The camp of Hong Jun-pyo, a presidential candidate from the People Power Party, released a recording, accusing the camp of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, a rival candidate, of "impersonating the party's name to deceive party members into believing that the party officially supports former Prosecutor General Yoon." In response, Yoon's camp rebutted in a statement, saying, "According to the party's rules and regulations, any party member can campaign, and especially, making phone calls to appeal for support for primary candidates is fully permitted."

On the 2nd, Lee Eon-ju and Ahn Sang-soo, co-chairs of Hong's campaign, held a 'Press Conference Condemning Illegal Election Activities by Yoon Seok-yeol's Camp' at the presidential campaign office in Yeouido, Seoul, and made these remarks.

According to the recording partially released by the camp 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."

Afterward, when the party member who received the call questioned whether this was a 'violation of election law' and said, "Why is the Seongbuk Branch making calls telling people to vote for a specific candidate? I will report this," the caller corrected themselves by saying, "It's Yoon's camp."

Regarding this, Committee Chair Lee said, "(The recording) is available on YouTube. They say such phone calls come quite frequently," and added, "The party's election management committee should 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 chairs and city/provincial party chairs?"

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

Following this, Chair Ahn urged 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.

On the other hand, Yoon's camp issued a statement that day opposing Hong's camp's claims. The camp stated, "Recently, a party member from the Seongbuk-gu branch of Seoul called a party member who is part of the primary electorate to appeal for support for former Prosecutor General Yoon. This was a perfectly normal and legitimate campaign activity that complied with both the party's rules and regulations and election laws."

The camp also said, "There is no clause in the People Power Party's rules and regulations that prohibits incumbent lawmakers or branch chairs from campaigning in the presidential primary. Therefore, branch chairs who are party members can support specific candidates." They added that Party Leader Lee Jun-seok has also stated that party members can publicly assist the party's presidential candidates' campaigns. Furthermore, they emphasized, "According to the Public Official Election Act, campaigning by phone or verbally during non-election periods is explicitly permitted."

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