Woo Sang-ho, on 'Poor Early Voting Management' Controversy: "Blaming One Side Is Excessive Political Offensive"

Regarding the Unification of Opposition Candidates: "The Backlash Is Greater"

Woo Sang-ho, Chief of the Democratic Party's General Election Headquarters. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Woo Sang-ho, the general election campaign headquarters chief of the Democratic Party of Korea, said on the 8th regarding the controversy over poor management of early voting, "For example, if a referee makes a mistake during a Korea-Japan soccer match, how is that the responsibility of the Korean players?"

On the morning of the same day on BBS Radio's 'Park Kyung-soo's Morning Journal,' Chief Woo said, "Those who managed poorly should be scolded. However, blaming one side's players for it is an excessive political attack."

He pointed out, "We are also angry that the National Election Commission did not manage well. Because among the ballots that came out from there, the ballots marked for Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, are not currently in the ballot boxes, right?" "Then didn't we also suffer a loss? So we are angry too, but what is hard to understand is that the People Power Party's presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl's side is trying to blame this as the responsibility of the Democratic Party and President Moon Jae-in."

Regarding the record-high early voting rate, Chief Woo said, "The common belief that the Democratic Party's supporters vote early is still valid," but he speculated, "However, the unusually high rate this time might be because Candidate Yoon also encouraged his supporters to vote early. So the People Power Party supporters probably voted a lot too."

He added, "It cannot be denied that Candidate Lee maintained a relative advantage in early voting, but this high turnout includes participation from Candidate Yoon's supporters, so I don't think it is a one-sided favorable situation."

On the opposition candidates' unification, Chief Woo claimed, "Since it was technically carried out at the last minute without the consent of the supporters, the backlash seems to have grown. Lee's supporters showed a pattern of firmly rallying around the unification. The unification had a bigger adverse effect than a positive one."

Furthermore, regarding the incident on the previous day (7th) where Song Young-gil, the Democratic Party leader, was attacked with a blunt weapon by an assailant during a campaign rally in Sinchon, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, he said, "He said he will resume activities from this afternoon. Truly remarkable," and pointed out, "Violent acts like this occurring during the election process are very inappropriate. It was a close call."

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