Kim Youngrok Urges Democratic Party Central Committee to Fully Reinvestigate "ARS System Failure"

Kim Youngrok, Governor of Jeonnam, who narrowly lost the Democratic Party’s Jeonnam-Gwangju Unified Special Mayoral primary, has demanded a full reinvestigation by the central party into the “ARS system failure” that occurred during the primary.

Kim Youngrok, Governor of Jeollanam-do, is speaking about the Jeonnam-Gwangju integrated special mayoral primary at the briefing room of Gwangju Metropolitan Council on the 29th. Photo by Yonhap News

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On the 29th, at a press conference held in the briefing room of the Gwangju Metropolitan Council, Governor Kim stated, “I strongly urge responsible action regarding the Jeonnam-Gwangju unified special mayoral primary process, as well as a reform of the undemocratic, hierarchical primary methods.”

In his statement, Governor Kim said, “The 2,308 ARS system failures in the Jeonnam region during the runoff, the inadequate guidance provided to the electoral college, the duplicate voting by rights-holding party members, and the overall lack of transparency in disclosing information about the primary process all reveal serious problems with fairness and transparency. Although I have demanded a responsible explanation from the central party regarding these allegations, the central party has yet to offer any explanation or answer to my legitimate requests.”

According to Governor Kim, on the first day of the runoff on April 12, there were 2,308 cases where calls were disconnected during the ARS voting process when Jeonnam was entered as the registered residence. Regarding this, Governor Kim pointed out, “Despite this major error caused by the polling agency’s careless system design, the central party pushed ahead with the primary by allowing only one redial attempt. Considering that the response rate was only 5-7%, this constitutes a fundamental and irreparable error that structurally excluded the intentions of more than 2,000 eligible voters from Jeonnam.”

Governor Kim further stated, “The Democratic Party sent out voting guidance text messages to around 310,000 rights-holding party members in Jeonnam and Gwangju for the runoff, but many did not receive the message. There were also cases where people who had voted in the preliminary and main primaries were told they were not eligible for the runoff. This is a fundamental violation of the fairness and transparency that form the foundation of democracy in elections, and it not only excludes voting rights but also constitutes a serious infringement on the sovereignty of party members.”

He added, “Given that the outcome was decided by such a narrow margin, these issues cannot be dismissed as simple technical errors or minor procedural oversights. They are entirely inconsistent with the Democratic Party’s stated principles of fairness and justice.”

He called on the party leadership and the election committee to conduct a clear and thorough reinvestigation of the facts.

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