Ongoing Suspicions of Democratic Party Member List Leak in Suncheon... Investigation Agencies Must Step In

Oh Ha-geun Preliminary Candidate Sends Promotional Texts to Unknown Party Members

Public Opinion and Party Sentiment Differ in First Primary Results, Raising Suspicions

[Suncheon=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Amid the ongoing second round of the Democratic Party's Suncheon mayoral primary, strong suspicions have been raised once again regarding the leakage of the list of party members with voting rights.

This is the second allegation following claims by former Suncheon city council member A and some party members about the leakage of the party member list.

On the 4th, Councilor A of Suncheon City Council stated, “Party members who joined directly through the Democratic Party Central Committee website cannot be identified locally at all. Yet, somehow only preliminary candidate Oh Ha-geun sent promotional text messages.”

It is claimed that A councilor’s son’s friends joined directly through the Central Committee website and, being young people, their phone numbers are not publicly known like ordinary citizens, which supports the claim of party member list leakage.

He continued, “Preliminary candidate for Suncheon City Council from the Ocheon district, who received a strategic nomination, also sent text messages,” adding, “I tried calling several times to find out how they knew and sent the messages, but they did not answer. I think they avoid answering because calls can be recorded and investigated.”

This raises the issue of whether the Democratic Party Suncheon Gap regional committee is involved in the leakage of the party member list.

He further said, “A person related to a candidate who was eliminated in the Democratic Party Suncheon mayoral primary came to ask about the facts and requested a confirmation letter,” adding, “If the party member list was leaked, it is a serious problem. I hope a thorough investigation will be conducted through legal proceedings.”

So far, the Democratic Party Suncheon mayoral primary has seen alignment between public opinion and party sentiment, but in the first round of the primary, party sentiment and public opinion diverged.

Preliminary candidate Oh Ha-geun led in the party members’ vote but lagged in the general public opinion poll.

This divergence in public sentiment further fuels suspicion of the leakage of the party member list.

A representative of the Democratic Party Suncheon Gap regional committee said, “The party member list is managed by the provincial party. Chairman So Byung-cheol did not recruit party members through strategic nomination,” adding, “During election season, there are rumors that candidates share the recruited party member lists with each other in preparation for primaries.”

Kim Seung-nam, provincial party chairman, said, “Since May last year, the Central Committee has been managing it. The party member list tends to circulate a lot during elections. You can think of it as something patched together from various sources,” adding, “It is difficult to verify even if investigated.”

As suspicions of party member list leakage arise in various places, citizens’ calls for judicial investigation are growing louder.

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