Kim Sang-wook, the Democratic Party of Korea's candidate for Ulsan mayor, argued that a candidate unification poll among progressive contenders without a reverse-voting safeguard would effectively hand victory to the People Power Party (PPP).
In an interview with CBS Radio's "Park Sung-tae's News Show" on the 27th, Kim cited the absence of a reverse-voting prevention clause as the reason for halting the Ulsan mayoral unification process. "Ulsan is a stronghold where the PPP's organizational power is overwhelming. If a poll is conducted without a reverse-voting safeguard, the PPP will naturally exploit its formidable organization to engage in reverse voting," Kim said. "If that happens, the unified candidate will not be one from the democratic and progressive camp, but a candidate the PPP finds easy to fight against — one the PPP prefers."
He continued, "As soon as the poll began on the 23rd, we received repeated tips that a specific party was systematically intervening by exploiting the absence of a reverse-voting prevention clause. After verifying this, we discovered that no such safeguard existed and declared a halt." Kim added that he had secured related audio recordings.
Kim also pressed the Progressive Party to change its stance, saying, "We proposed conducting a new unification poll with a reverse-voting safeguard as early as today or tomorrow, but the Progressive Party is not accepting it." Asked whether the unification should be considered scrapped if no poll is held in the coming days, Kim said, "Having it fall apart is less dangerous than unification in its current form. If a candidate the PPP wants is installed as the unified candidate of the democratic and progressive camp, the election is a guaranteed loss."
Turning to the Progressive Party, he said, "We must never overlook the fact that Ulsan is a place where the PPP's support base is truly solid," urging that a candidate from the democratic and progressive camp be selected through an uncontaminated poll.
