The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) on Monday resumed its presidential primary election, as all defiant candidates had ended a boycott over allegations of unfair voting rules, official sources said Monday.
Lew Seon-ho, the vice chairman of the party's election committee, said a deal was reached with representatives of the candidates so the selection process to pick the party's presidential hopeful can move forward in the afternoon.
Former party chairman Sohn Hak-kyu and former South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Doo-kwan walked out of all election-related activities on Sunday, demanding meaningful changes to the mobile voting rules.
Chung Sye-kyun, another contender joined forces in criticizing problems with the voting system, which has played a key role in the election so far, although the lawmaker made clear he will continue to compete.
Despite the understanding reached, the DUP said it has canceled a televised debate by the four candidates in North Chungcheong Province because Sohn and Kim could not make the appointment.
Related to the resumption of the primary race, Sohn's election camp said after a long-drawn debate that its candidate will return to the primary race.
"The candidate said he is coming back so the DUP can take back power from Saenuri," a spokesman said.
Kim also held a press conference in parliament and maintained that the DUP must not pick its candidate by unfair methods.
He said that while the party has mismanaged the election, he has decided to end his boycott so the party can pick the best candidate to compete with Rep. Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party.
"I intend to fight for change and complete the primary," he said.
The three contenders for the party's presidential ticket have said the current rules are biased and favor 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.
Moon, at present, has won 57.3 percent of all votes cast, followed by Kim and Sohn with 20.3 percent and 17.9 percent, respectively. Chung, a former commerce minister, came in last with just 4.5 percent.
Under the present voting system, votes made by phone are not counted unless people listen to an entire pre-recorded message that lists all four contenders for the party's presidential ticket, and confirms his or her vote has been properly counted.
Critics had argued that because Moon is the last person on the list, his supporters are more likely to listen to the entire recording, while supporters of other candidates may turn off their phones prematurely.
Moon, on the other hand, told reporters that it is wrong to say the mobile election process has serious faults and he expressed regrets that the DUP leadership has not been able to cope with the incident in an effective manner.
"The leadership should release full details of how the mobile votes were cast and how many were disqualified," the hopeful, who has led in past polls, said.
Echoing this view, the party's election committee said it found no real problems in the mobile elections so far.
"The amount of disqualified votes was within the range that could be expected in such races," Lew said. He claimed 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.
The DUP, however, pledged to revamp existing rules for the casting and counting of mobile votes so no candidate is placed at a disadvantage.
Party Chairman Lee Hae-chan, meanwhile, apologized for the confusion in the mobile election.
"The core of the issue is not that the process was unfair, but that there was a problem in management," he claimed earlier in the day.
The DUP is scheduled to pick a candidate on Sept. 16 to run in the Dec. 19 presidential race, although this can be pushed back by one week if no candidate wins 50 percent of all votes cast. (Yonhap)