"Democratic Party Must Address Various Illegal Primary Election Allegations"

Participant Autonomy 21, Press Statement "Improvement of the New Nomination System"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Junho] On the 12th, a civic group in Gwangju criticized the Democratic Party of Korea, which has been plagued by controversies during the primary election process, saying, "They no longer have the right to discuss democracy."

Participation and Autonomy 21 issued a statement titled "They must respond to the illegal primary election allegations that shake the foundation of democracy" on the same day.

The main controversies are summarized into three points: ▲ the prior leakage of the voter list during the city council primary election process ▲ the exclusion of vote observers during the primary election ▲ the additional recruitment of electors by the polling agency managing the primary election.

The group emphasized, "If these controversies are true, they constitute serious illegal acts that shake the foundation of democracy," adding, "Fifteen preliminary candidates who participated in the primary have filed complaints against the metropolitan city party, and the truth will be revealed through investigation and trial."

They also pointed out, "The Democratic Party overturned its promise of a just electoral system based on the proportionality of votes as easily as flipping the palm of a hand," and "By nominating candidates with prior misconduct records, they themselves proved that the nomination was far from innovative."

Furthermore, they mentioned, "The youth and women special district nominations conducted in the name of innovation sparked rumors of pre-selection and favoritism," and "On top of that, this controversy of conducting illegal primaries in violation of the law has been added."

The group demanded, "They must also provide specific answers to the raised allegations. The nomination criteria, scoring, nomination review contents, and scores must be disclosed."

Finally, they suggested, "A new nomination system that officially institutionalizes the ability to nominate candidates who can serve as public servants even without money must be established. A concrete political reform plan to realize the proportionality of votes should be presented."

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