The People Power Party's special committee on organizational strengthening decided to forgo a revote in the runoff for the Yongin A district organizing committee chair and to select candidate Yoon Jae-bok. The decision to keep the original runoff result came after candidate Yang Hyang-ja, a sitting supreme council member, raised complaints about a flawed primary and said she would not take part in the revote. The intraparty conflict that flared during the contest is expected to subside.
Jung Hee-yong, the party's secretary-general and head of the committee, said at a briefing at the party's central headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 16th that the committee had "decided to name candidate Yoon as the selection target for the Yongin A organizing committee chair, in line with the existing runoff result." He said the committee held an information session for the candidates on the revote the previous afternoon, but that Yoon attended alone and signed a pledge agreeing to the primary terms. "The committee therefore reviewed the circumstances, including Yang's intention not to participate in the revote, and decided not to hold the runoff revote," he said. Yoon will be formally confirmed as organizing committee chair after a vote by the supreme council.
In the Yongin A runoff held on the 8th, Yoon defeated his rival, supreme council member Yang, but it was confirmed that automated response system (ARS) calls had failed to reach some dues-paying party members because of one telecom carrier's own spam-blocking system. The committee had decided to hold a runoff revote on the 13th to safeguard members' voting rights.
Yang, however, called for a full re-election rather than a revote, fueling the dispute. At a supreme council meeting the previous day, she said pointedly: "If we only redo the runoff and the Democratic Party says the People Power Party is no longer qualified to join the Olympic Park rally, what are we supposed to say?" Jang Dong-hyuk, the party's leader, responded angrily: "Are you turning even the party leader, who is fighting election fraud, into someone unqualified to fight?"
The committee has drawn a line against Yang's demand for a full re-election. Jung said that "according to the carrier's technical explanation, there were no spam-blocking measures in the nine other primary districts" outside Yongin A, adding that "in the case of Yongin A, a technical error was found."
He also said the party would "address technical and institutional gaps in the primary process so that party members are fully guaranteed the chance to vote." He added: "We will resolve the questions that have been raised on the basis of objective facts, so that fairness and credibility are not damaged by groundless allegations about the primary process."