DUP primary may end up in limbo
By Chung Min-uck
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) is facing growing dissent over its primaries to select a presidential candidate due to an internal feud between the frontrunner and the second placed hopeful.
The source of the tension is the stark differences in voting results between citizens who cast ballots via mobile phones and DUP delegates who vote at polling stations.
Rep. Moon Jae-in, the former chief of staff to the late President Roh Moo-hyun who is currently in the lead, gained most of his votes through cell-phones; whereas Sohn Hak-kyu, a former governor of Gyeonggi Province, got his from DUP delegate votes.
“The DUP leadership led by pro-Roh figures developed a sneaky way of winning the party primaries,” said Sohn in a speech made during the regional primary held in South Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. “By manipulating the mobile voting system, they have distorted the views of party members and the general public.”
Moon won his seventh straight victory in the South Gyeongsang primary garnering 11,683 votes, or 45.1 percent, of the 25,908 cast followed by Kim Doo-kwan, former South Gyeongsang Province Governor, with 44 percent.
Overall, Moon is leading the race with support of 45.9 percent of votes cast including mobile ballots which account for over 90 percent of all votes. Sohn came second with 22.6 percent.
The DUP delegates who voted for Sohn are protesting against the party leadership for alleged poor management of the elections.
DUP Chairman Lee Hae-chan and floor leader Park Jie-won received the cold shoulder from delegates who participated in the Jeonju and Incheon primaries held last week. Some party members alleged that they deliberately favored Moon, an allegation the leadership denied.
The trailing candidates ― Sohn Hak-kyu, former Gyeonggi Province Governor; Kim Doo-kwan; and Rep. Chung Sye-kyun ― claim the mobile voting has distorted the views of its party members and is biased in favor of the current front-runner.
It was revealed that Sohn overtook Moon in votes cast by party members by a wide margin and also in off-line votes. Sohn topped the party member voting garnering 35.1 percent as of Monday’s primary, 10 percentage points more than that of Moon. Sohn took the lead in off-line votes as well with 28.7 percent. But these two types of voting only accounted for 6.3 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, of ballots cast so far.
“It is disappointing to see candidates mudslinging while the primary contests are under way,” said Rep. Kang Gi-jung, a supreme council member of the DUP in a radio interview, Tuesday. “I guess the mobile voting system ignited the feud between the presidential hopefuls as the results turned out to be in favor of a particular candidate. But we cannot change the voting system now. The DUP is in a difficult situation.”
Regarding the criticism, Moon said earlier “the mobile votes are the true reflection of public sentiment and should be respected.”
The DUP is scheduled to announce the final winner of the regional primaries on Sept. 16. A run-off election is expected if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of all votes cast.
Meanwhile, Moon saw his support rate fall far behind Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate, and Ahn Cheol-soo, a software entrepreneur-turned-professor, in the latest opinion polls despite his winning streak in the DUP primaries.