DUP checking alleged mobile voting irregularities in primary race

The main opposition party is checking allegations of irregularities in its mobile voting system that have raised debate about the overall fairness of its ongoing primary race, sources said Wednesday.

A review panel set up to examine the reliability of the Democratic United Party's (DUP) mobile phone voting system said it found 3,653 cases of violations to the mandatory calling rules that are designed to give registered voters multiple opportunities to cast their votes.

The rules call for a vote tallying company working for the party to place five calls to every registered voter to urge them to vote. If he or she fails to respond after the fifth attempt, that person is automatically removed from the voting roster.

Allegations raised claimed that the "minimum five call" rules were not followed, which deprived many people of the right to vote.

"There were 2,876 violations in Jeju Island and 5,290 cases in Ulsan, which were the first two local primaries held," a panel official said

He said that the total is equal to 17.7 percent of all voters disqualified in Jeju and 14.7 percent thrown out in Ulsan.

The numbers are large enough to have affected election results and have raised concerns the DUP leadership is mismanaging the primary.

Calls of foul play were raised by campaign managers working for former DUP chief Sohn Hak-kyu and former South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Doo-kwan. Sohn and Kim are currently running second and third place in the primary that has already received votes from seven regions across the country.

Rep. Moon Jae-in, a former chief of staff to the late President Roh Moo-hyun, is ahead of his three rivals, and former commerce minister Chung Sye-kyun is struggling to stay in the race at last place.

"The findings clearly show many people were not permitted to vote, which is a serious incident," said a representative for Sohn. He said the revelations are yet another sign the party's mobile voting system is flawed.

The official said that such developments can affect the progress of the primary itself, and called for thorough scrutiny.

Kim's campaign managers said there is a need to check all the other regional primary elections held so far and there may be a need to halt the mobile voting process until the situation is resolved.

The latest revelation comes after Sohn and Kim boycotted the primary for one day in late August after claiming the voting system was biased in favor of Moon.

The party's election committee said that violation of the "minimum calling rule" was mainly due to no dial tone being heard and people keeping their phones off.

"The phone must be on and a dial tone heard for the minimum calling count to take place," a party official said. He said details of why so many people were disqualified are being checked.

The latest incident is expected to further cause a drop in interest in the DUP primary that is scheduled to pick its presidential candidate on Sept. 16. The date could be pushed back one week if no single candidate wins more than 50 percent of votes cast.

Reflecting the low interest in the race, the DUP confirmed Tuesday that only 1.08 million people have signed up to vote in the primary, which is much lower than the 1.5 million forecast by the party. (Yonhap)