People Power Party Changwon Jinhae Preliminary Candidates Angry Over Strategic Nomination: "Reconsider Nomination and Hold Primary Election"

Active Lawmaker Faces Allegations of Election Interference and Other Charges...

Preliminary candidates for the National Assembly election in Jinhae-gu, Changwon-si, Gyeongnam, from the People Power Party, protested on the morning of the 29th against the strategic nomination decision of former Public Procurement Service Commissioner Lee Jong-wook announced by the Nomination Management Committee.

Preliminary candidates Park Chun-duk, former provincial council member, and Kim Ha-yong, former chairman of the provincial council, held a press conference at the Changwon City Hall Press Center in the afternoon, urging, “Disclose the strategic nomination process that ignored procedures transparently and proceed with reconsideration and a primary election.”

They pointed out, “So far, Jinhae has been represented by people who have no connection to Jinhae, who came in and served as members of the National Assembly,” and “It has become a nesting ground for election migratory birds.”

They claimed, “The judgment that ignores the voices of Jinhae citizens entirely and assumes that nomination alone guarantees election is an anachronistic idea that is driving Jinhae to ruin.”

The two preliminary candidates said, “The announcement today of the priority recommendation of former Commissioner Lee was made by personally receiving documents and conducting interviews, ignoring the preliminary candidate registration procedure,” adding, “This is the central party itself denying the People Power Party’s nomination system.”

They demanded, “The submission date of former Commissioner Lee’s materials and the interview date must be disclosed for the trust of the people.”

They further stated, “We are considering filing a prosecution complaint regarding the dissemination of false information by former Commissioner Lee during the candidate recruitment and interview process and the suspicion of election interference by incumbent lawmaker Lee Dal-gon.”

“To resolve this, a primary election and reconsideration including former Commissioner Lee, who was given the priority recommendation, must be conducted first,” they emphasized, “If the suspicions are not resolved, we will respond legally.”

Park Chunduk, a preliminary candidate for the People Power Party in Jinhae-gu, Changwon, Gyeongnam, and former provincial council member (right), and Kim Hayong, former chairman of the provincial council, are raising suspicions while holding up the screen of a group chat room for city and provincial council members.
[Photo by Lee Seryeong]

The two said, “Lawmaker Lee is suspected of election interference by ordering pre-election campaigning, such as announcing the strategic nominee in group chats of city and provincial council members without the central party’s submission of materials and interviews being conducted.”

“A staff member of Lee’s Jinhae office recently commissioned a certain planning company to produce election campaign banners related to former Commissioner Lee, then instructed on March 1 to put up former Commissioner Lee’s banners instead of Lee’s own,” they added.

They also explained, “Former Commissioner Lee spread false information that he was a strategic nominee despite not being registered as a preliminary candidate,” and “This constitutes pre-election campaigning by a non-preliminary candidate.”

Preliminary candidate Park said, “We have also secured the post that lawmaker Lee uploaded in the group chat and a phone call in which former Commissioner Lee revealed his strategic nomination plan to a certain high school alumni association official and requested help.”

They said, “If the candidate is confirmed as is, the People Power Party’s central nomination system will collapse overnight,” and “If the Nomination Management Committee does not respond to the request for reconsideration or a primary election by March 4, we plan to file complaints against lawmaker Lee and former Commissioner Lee with the election commission and prosecution.”

In the press release, Lee Sung-hee, a visiting researcher at the Health City Research Center of Korea University’s Public Policy Research Institute, was also listed as a preliminary candidate for Jinhae-gu but did not attend the press conference due to personal reasons.

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