Kang Wiwon Criticizes "Making National Assembly Members Publicly Support Local Councilors Yang Bu-nam"

"Make City and District Council Members Send Texts by Hacking Their Phones"

"Dozens of Reported Cases... Need to Change Old Practices"

Kang Wiwon, the standing representative of the Democratic Party of Korea's National Innovation Council and a candidate for the chairman of the Democratic Party's Gwangju Metropolitan City Party Committee, sharply criticized local lawmakers for publicly supporting candidate Yang Bunam by mobilizing basic and metropolitan council members.

On the 29th, Kang Wiwon, candidate for the Democratic Party's Gwangju City Party Committee chairman, held a press conference at the Gwangju City Council and said, "They held a meeting of the secretaries of eight regional committees to discuss election campaigns, and the regional chairpersons who hold the nomination rights for local elections are making city and district council members support candidate Yang Bunam."

He continued, "City and district council members visit Yang Bunam's campaign office and use their mobile phones to send support text messages for Yang Bunam to party members. There have been dozens of reported cases," adding, "In this era of party member sovereignty, what we need to change and fight against is precisely these outdated practices."

He also criticized a post recently uploaded on social media by Representative Jeong Jinwook (Gwangju Dongnam-gap).

Kang said, "Jeong Jinwook, a member of the National Assembly who serves as the regional committee chairman for Gwangju Dongnam-gap, acting party leader, and chief secretary of the floor leader's office, is well aware that he falls under the category of 'persons prohibited from campaigning' according to Article 34 of Party Regulation No. 4," and emphasized, "On the 16th, the Democratic Party Central Election Commission sent an official letter to all regional committees stating that 'members of the National Assembly, provincial party chairpersons, and regional committee chairpersons are prohibited from supporting or opposing specific candidates, and if violations of party regulations occur, sanctions may be imposed on the parties involved, including candidates.'"

He added, "This is not a criticism of a lawmaker who has only been in office for two months as an entrenched vested interest," and explained, "What I criticize is the outdated behavior that thoughtlessly repeats corrupt practices that must be corrected."

He continued, "While the bizarre collusion where lawmakers gather and decide by consensus is problematic, the election campaign methods carried out under the name of tradition are even more problematic," and stressed, "If you want to run for the chairman of the Gwangju City Party Committee, you must immediately step down from your positions as acting party leader's chief secretary and Dongnam-gap regional committee chairman."

He also urged candidate Yang Bunam, "Please immediately stop mobilizing city and district council members to send support text messages. Calling them to the campaign office to send group messages on their behalf is illegal," and stated, "This is a symbol of the outdated politics that candidate Yang Bunam and I must change."

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