People Power Party: "Korean Broadcasting System's Ban on Televised Debate Is Illegal Election Interference According to Election Commission's Interpretation"

Kwon Young-se, head of the People Power Party's election campaign headquarters, is delivering opening remarks at the joint meeting of the campaign headquarters and the floor leadership held at the National Assembly on the 27th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The People Power Party condemned the Central Election Commission's interpretation of the law as 'illegal election interference.' They claim that the commission's interpretation aims to create an election landscape favorable to Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate.

On the 30th, Kwon Young-se, head of the People Power Party's election countermeasures headquarters, stated in a press release, "We strongly condemn the Central Election Commission's act of issuing an interpretation that prohibits broadcasting any form of a one-on-one debate between the presidential candidates from both parties, as illegal election interference intended to create an election environment favorable to Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung."

The Central Election Commission, the day before, prohibited broadcasters from relaying the one-on-one debate between candidate Lee and People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl, allowing only the candidates' campaign YouTube channels to broadcast it. This effectively blocked the possibility of TV broadcasting of the one-on-one debate.

Kwon stated, "The commission's biased interpretation seriously infringes on the public's right to know, who want to watch and listen to the one-on-one debate and verify the candidates' platforms, and it is an act that ignores and violates the spirit of the constitution, thus fundamentally invalid."

He added, "The act of blocking not only live and relay broadcasts by broadcasters' autonomous coverage but also recorded broadcasts and even full uploads on YouTube is tantamount to telling the public not to watch the one-on-one debate," and said, "It deviates from the court's ruling and is illegal election interference restricting the media's autonomous broadcast relay."

Furthermore, Kwon raised suspicions that this decision was made to assist the ruling party's candidate. He argued, "The commission's blatant and biased support for the ruling party is enough to raise suspicions of election fraud among the public."

He said, "Candidate Lee has repeatedly insisted on having TV debates unconditionally and without topic restrictions but reversed his stance again during negotiations," adding, "When the practical debate negotiations began, he proposed splitting the topics into several parts, even demanding to divide them like '10 minutes on economic growth,' '10 minutes on economic distribution,' and '10 minutes on Daejang-dong,' splitting and splitting the topics like bamboo."

Kwon concluded, "Since the commission's interpretation is illegal election interference, we urge sincere participation in the one-on-one debate negotiations that guarantee the public's right to know," and stated, "The commission should not hide behind its biased interpretation but come out with sincerity to the one-on-one debate negotiations resuming today."

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