DUP normalizes primary race
By Chung Min-uck
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) struggles as some presidential hopefuls continue boycotting the party’s primary election in protest of alleged irregularities in the mobile voting method, Monday.
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) resumed its presidential primary election Monday after protesting candidates ended their boycott due to alleged irregularities in the mobile voting method.
However, the in-house feud will likely continue as the three underdog contenders are poised to lock horns with Rep. Moon Jae-in, the leading presidential hopeful of the DUP.
“Presidential candidate Sohn Hak-kyu decided to return to the primary so that the DUP can take back power from the ruling Saenuri Party,” said Kim Yoo-jung, a spokeswoman for Sohn’s camp, Monday. “But his return is for the power change. It is not because the problem of mobile voting has been solved.”
Former South Gyeongsang Governor Kim Doo-kwan, one of the four DUP presidential candidates, also returned to the race but maintained that the DUP must pick its candidate through fair methods.
“The new pro-Roh Moo-hyun faction has a vested interest in the party and is manipulating the party’s primary,” said Kim at a press conference. “It will ruin the DUP and democracy in this country.”
Rep. Chung Sye-kyun, another contender, also joined forces in criticizing problems with the voting system although the lawmaker made clear he will continue to compete.
The three contenders earlier said the current mobile voting method is biased and favors Rep. Moon Jae-in, who won by a big margin in the party's first and second regional primary races that took place on Jeju Island and in the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan over the weekend.
Rep. Moon Jae-in, the former chief of staff for late President Roh, emerged the winner with nearly 60 percent of the votes in recent primaries in Jeju and Ulsan City.
Moon was followed by Kim with 20.3 percent and Sohn and Chung who gained 17.9 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively, in Sunday’s primary.
Moon has been desperate to wrap up the primary early by garnering the majority in the initial stage without bringing it to a final vote against a runner-up. His plan is more feasible now with unexpected landslide victories in the two primaries.
He told reporters that it was wrong to say the mobile election process has serious faults and expressed regrets that the DUP leadership has not been able to cope with the incident in an effective manner.
Political pundits say the ongoing conflict between Moon and other underdog candidates, if prolonged, will surge support for entrepreneur-turned-professor Ahn Cheol-soo and increase his approval ratings as he is considered a non-mainstreamer who is not mired in the corruption scandals of the current political scene.
“The continuing in-house feud over the methods of selecting the presidential candidate through mobile voting solidifies the chances for Ahn,” a DUP insider said on condition of anonymity.
The DUP had been eager to polish the party image with a so-called “convention effect” through the recent primary, but this has become impossible due to the disruption of the primary process at the initial stage.
The boycott took place as under the current primary rules state that mobile phone votes are counted only if the voter listens to the entire pre-recorded message that lists all four contenders for the party's presidential ticket.
Moon allegedly has more chances to get his votes to count as he is the fourth candidate on the list and his supporters naturally have to wait until the end of the recording.
After the investigation, it was revealed that problems found were not serious, with those involved in the re-tallying process for the Jeju election reporting just 599 votes disqualified out of a total of 20,102 votes cast.
Following the internal feud, the DUP leadership said Monday it will make changes to the rules.
The party is scheduled to pick a single candidate on Sept. 16 to run for the Dec. 19 presidential race. The selection can be pushed back by one week if no candidate wins 50 percent of all the votes cast.