The Democratic Party of Korea strongly urged the People Power Party to halt political conflict and enter negotiations on parliamentary organization, as the opposition has launched an offensive using the ballot shortage incident that occurred during the June 3 local elections.
Jeon Su-mi, the Democratic Party's spokesperson, said in a commentary Friday that "the ballot shortage incident is a grave matter that has undermined the foundations of democracy, and the party and government have already moved swiftly to thoroughly root out the errors of the constitutional body and protect the people's sovereignty." Targeting the opposition's behavior of ignoring parliamentary organization, which is the key to resolving the incident, she said, "For substantive fact-finding, including a parliamentary investigation, organizing the National Assembly is the top priority." She sharpened her criticism, adding, "The behavior of loudly demanding only a parliamentary investigation and a special counsel while refusing to cooperate on the parliamentary organization needed for fact-finding is itself a contradictory political offensive."
The Democratic Party particularly pointed out that the People Power Party leadership is exploiting the incident as a framework for tactical out-of-chamber struggle and rejection of the election results, rather than working to resolve it. Jeon said, "It is deeply regrettable that the People Power Party leadership is absorbed in political strife rather than resolving the incident," adding, "Even though the government and ruling party have already left open every possibility for fact-finding, Leader Jang Dong-hyeok is only criticizing for the sake of criticism and inciting the public."
The party also criticized Jang for visiting demonstrators who had blockaded a ballot-counting station in Jamsil, Seoul, and were claiming election fraud and demanding a re-vote, telling them he would "fight together to the death." The party called the remark "conduct that crosses the line for the leader of the main opposition party." It warned, "Ignoring the party and government's demand to complete the parliamentary organization within June and swiftly pursue a parliamentary investigation and special counsel within the National Assembly, while invoking 'the end of the regime' outside the chamber and denying the election results themselves, is an entirely different matter."
The Democratic Party also pushed back against Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who turned his criticism toward President Lee Jae-myung by saying of the incident that "ultimately, it is all the president's responsibility." Jeon characterized Oh's claim as "a malicious political framing," saying, "Dragging the president into every single matter—the 'blame-it-all-on-the-president' approach—while ignoring even the basic constitutional common sense of the separation of powers is cowardly, outdated politics." She criticized it as a shallow form of bystanding aimed at riding on the opposition leadership's tactical offensive.
Jeon stressed that "the Lee Jae-myung administration and the Democratic Party will achieve clear fact-finding on this incident and reform of the National Election Commission," while telling the People Power Party to "immediately stop the political show of seeking only the windfall benefits of one-sided special counsel demands while abandoning the parliamentary organization that is the sole legal basis for a fact-finding investigation." She repeatedly called for prompt cooperation on organizing the National Assembly.
