Gwangju Police Launch Investigation into Dissemination of "False Vote Percentages" in Democratic Party Primary

Anti-Corruption Unit Takes Over Case from Gwangsan Police Station

Gwangju Police Agency exterior.

The Gwangju Police Agency has launched a full-scale investigation into the case involving the dissemination of text messages containing "false vote percentages" during the preliminary primary for the Democratic Party’s South Jeolla–Gwangju Integrated Special Mayoral race.

On April 9, the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit of the Gwangju Police Agency announced that it had taken over the case from the Gwangsan Police Station and started its own investigation into the distribution of false vote percentages.

Immediately after the announcement of the preliminary primary results for the Democratic Party’s South Jeolla–Gwangju Integrated Special Mayoral election on March 20, unverified materials claiming to show each candidate’s specific vote percentage rapidly spread via social networking services (SNS), such as KakaoTalk group chats.

In response, the campaign of candidate Min Hyung-bae filed a complaint with the Gwangsan Police Station, stating that "the dissemination of false vote percentages not only constitutes defamation but is also a serious election crime in direct violation of the Public Official Election Act."

The Gwangju Police Agency decided to investigate the matter directly, given that it has received significant media coverage and could have a major impact on the election results. The police plan to identify the original author of the false messages and investigate how they were systematically distributed, with a particular focus on whether the spread of fake information was intentional.

Additionally, the Metropolitan Investigation Unit plans to exclusively handle major cases of election law violations that have arisen during the Integrated Special Mayoral election, including allegations of "reverse selection inducement" during the consolidation process between candidates Kang Gi-jung and Shin Jung-hoon.

A police official stated, "We will conduct a thorough investigation into election crimes, such as the spread of false information that damages the fairness of elections—the very foundation of democracy—in strict accordance with the law and principles."

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