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The United New Democratic Party’s presidential primary looks more peculiar with each passing day. A closer look at the primary ballots tallied in North Chungcheong Province showed 40.1 percent of the voters came from the single constituency of Boeun-Okcheon-Yeongdong -- the residents of this constituency make up only 9.5 percent of the population of North Chungcheong Province. The lawmaker representing this area is Lee Yong-hee, National Assembly deputy speaker and chief advisor in the camp of presidential contender Chung Dong-young, who garnered an overwhelming 78.4 percent of the votes there. So far, Chung garnered 3,003 votes in Jeju Island, 2,262 in Ulsan, and 2,311 in Gangwon Province. But he garnered 3,840 votes, in the single constituency of Boeun.
Presidential contender Lee Hae-chan’s camp criticized the result, saying Lee brought busloads of voters to the polling station. The website of the UNDP is being filled with postings claiming that some contenders shuttled senior citizens to the polling stations, while others say they went to the polling station only to return home without voting. On top of that, the county heads of Boeun, Okcheon and Yeongdong were present at the polling station, cheering the voters on. That action is being criticized for representing government intervention in elections.
The Chung camp said they were not the only ones who did such things and asked what was wrong with mobilizing voters. They accused other candidates of venting their frustration at the lack of votes. Although there may be differences in the number of votes, the same phenomenon occurred in the constituencies of lawmakers supporting former Gyeonggi Province governor Sohn Hak-kyu and ex-prime minister Lee Hae-chan.
The inherent problem lies in the rules the UNDP hastily cobbled together for its primary, mindful only of voter turnout rather than laws and principles. That’s why we are seeing the mobilization of supporters behind Chung, Sohn and Lee, rather than voters objectively judging the contenders. And it is a fact that all of the contenders surreptitiously registered people for the UNDP’s electoral college by stealing their identities. Even President Roh Moo-hyun was registered without his knowledge. This is an unprecedented case of identity theft. Amid this farce, it may be futile to even argue about candidates mobilizing voters or damaging the regional equivalence. If you think about it, the abrupt exit from the race by two pro-Roh contenders at the start of the primary was designed to mobilize votes among the president’s supporters.
On Wednesday, the UNDP began registering voters for its electoral college who will cast their ballots via mobile phone. Voting that way risks damaging the constitutional election guidelines of secret and direct ballots. But the UNDP’s presidential contenders, who have tasted the power of mobilizing supporters, are not likely to worry about such side effects. Already, each camp has reportedly issued orders to mobilize as many supporters as possible. We are seeing the evolution of corrupt politics now employing the help of mobile phones.
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