Infighting mars new partys primaries
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
With around two months to go before the presidential election, the United New Democratic Party (UNDP) is struggling with the primary race in selecting its presidential nominee due to conflicts among the three contenders.
Former Gyeonggi Governor Sohn Hak-kyu and former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan have attacked frontrunner Chung Dong-young, former unification minister, for alleged mobilization of fake voters and phony registration for the electoral college in which his campaign workers are allegedly involved.
Despite the recent agreement among the runners to have a one-off balloting, they are still arguing over the election fraud, while Chung insists it is a conspiracy theory to drag the frontrunner down.
The party was created on Aug. 5 by deserters from the now-defunct ruling Uri Party and some from the Democratic Party.
The internal feud intensified as the police last Saturday attempted to raid Chung's presidential camp to search for evidence that could prove Chung's direct involvement in the case.
Now, even Chung, 54, is asking for an investigation to be conducted on his two rivals for the alleged illicit campaigns such as the mobilization of fake voters and registration for the electoral college by proxy.
The dispute started as Chung won a landslide victory in the second round of voting held in the Gangwon and North Chungcheong province on Sept. 16. In small cities of Boun and Okcheon, Chung almost swept up all the votes.
Chung garnered 44.48 percent of the total eligible votes, whereas Lee and Sohn got 28.36 percent and 27.16 percent, respectively.
Unlike expectations that Sohn would lead the contest, Chung, a former MBC anchorman, has trumped having his rivals lag far behind him.
Before the nomination race began, the former governor gained the most support among the UNDP's contenders in most surveys conducted by media outlets.
Some election experts, as well as Sohn, claimed that Chung was able to top the primary elections because his camp signed up his supporters as an electoral college and bused them to polling stations.
Electioneering
The UNDP was scheduled to have eight rounds of voting in 16 provinces and metropolitan cities to select its standard-bearer.
To encourage more people to join the nomination race, the party ambitiously adopted an open primary system, which allows non-party members to vote.
Anyone that is an adult and a non-party member can participate in balloting by signing up as a member of the electoral college on the party's Web site.
The current feuding began from the method of registration.
In order to be a voter, the name, resident registration number, address and phone number are the only pieces of information required. As a result, anyone can be a voter and anyone can register other people as well.
Lee Hae-chan, 55, pointed out that this registration method could eventually trigger vote-buying and internal feuding, and urged the party to change the system.
Sohn Hak-kyu, 60, insisted that Chung's campaign workers registered Chung's supporters with the party by proxy and persuaded them to vote for him.
Some officials from Sohn camp also claimed that they were beaten by Chung's supporters as they witnessed the frontrunner's supporters bus voters to polling station on Sept. 29, the third voting day.
Former Unification Minister Chung denied the allegation, saying that his rivals were trying to hinder his lead in the primary race.
Chung leads the race with 43.1 percent followed by Sohn and Lee with 31.9 percent and 25 percent, respectively.
However, both Sohn and Lee continued to accuse him of election fraud. Chung faced stronger attack as one of his female campaign workers was found to have signed up President Roh Moo-hyun as a member of the electoral college.
According to the police, Jung In-hoon, who is working for the Chung camp, let his son register other people as a voter using personal information of 500 out of 800 party members, which was given to him by an official of the UNDP.
She denied Chung's involvement in the case, claiming she just tried to make it as if many people were interested in the nomination race.
The police arrested both Jung and the party official and continued probing to see whether or not Chung directly instructed the fraud last week.
They also raided Chung's office in Seoul last Saturday to collect evidence, but returned in two hours due to strong resistance from Chung's supporters.
However, the battle between the two sides will likely rekindle, as the police have said that they will soon resume the search for evidence.
One-Off Voting
Sohn Hak-kyu accused Chung of his illicit electioneering and withdrew from the public for a couple of days, boycotting a TV debate.
He criticized the party leadership, connived the unlawfulness, while urging them to preset measures to stop further fraud.
Although he soon rejoined the contest, even Lee Hae-chan urged the leadership to postpone the remaining balloting and investigate Chung's fraudulent electioneering.
Chung opposed the changes in the voting schedule, so the party decided to hold a one-off balloting on Oct. 14 by merging the remaining four rounds of voting.
The party had originally planned to hold eight rounds until Oct. 14 and announce its presidential nominee a day later.
Holding only one voting session is likely to be the best option for the UNDP, which can neither delay nor proceed the voting schedule.
The internal feud was seemingly appeased through the agreement, but the phony registration of the president reignited the dispute.
Both Sohn and Lee did not show up in the joint rally held in Dae-gu Monday, saying the party had not made full efforts to investigate the election fraud.
They added, it remains uncertain whether or not they will join the other joint rallies and party's events, even though they will participate in the Oct. 14 voting.
The two contenders also asked that the mobile phone voting, which began Monday, also be postponed. Sohn's aides said the party should delay the mobile phone voting because of the need to check technical problems.
The UNDP adopted the new voting system in which the electoral college can vote using a mobile phone for the open primary.
Chung's camp is making a counterattack, claiming his two rivals also committed election fraud such as vote-buying and registration by proxy.
As the dispute among the three contenders gets fiercer, concerns are growing that the party may be unable to hold the one-off voting.
If the party propels the one-off vote, Sohn and Lee may drop out of it, which will make the nomination race meaningless, party sources said.
If the UNDP delays the primary race following the request from Sohn and Lee, Chung would refute the decision and give up running in the race.
Moreover, the National Election Commission (NEC) is scheduled to supervise the contest until Oct. 14. The party will likely struggle more with fairness issues without the NEC, political observers said.
If the party fails to find a solution and pick a presidential nominee, in the worst case, none of the three contenders will be able to run for the Dec. 19 presidential election.
According to the Election Law, people who lose in a primary race cannot join a presidential election as a representative for other parties or an independent.
The party is also suffering from low voter turnouts of less than 20 percent, which puts the party in question of authenticity.