The Democratic Party of Korea on Tuesday called on the People Power Party to "immediately stop its old-fashioned behavior and exercise restraint," after the opposition party demanded a nationwide re-election over an unprecedented ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections.
In a written briefing, Lee Joo-hee, the Democratic Party's floor spokesperson, criticized the move, saying, "At a time when the National Assembly should be pooling all its strength to protect the people's right to political participation, they are exploiting a national incident as a political dispute to discredit the Lee Jae-myung administration."
She also expressed strong displeasure over People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok pointing out that Wi Chul-hwan, the acting head of the National Election Commission, was a bar exam classmate of President Lee Jae-myung. "The acting leadership system following the chairman's resignation is an unavoidable administrative procedure," the floor spokesperson said. "Despite this, bringing up private connections and dragging the president into it makes onlookers frown."
She added, "The People Power Party should stop its wasteful offensive and first sort out the internal disarray of those within the party who endorse election fraud claims or demand a re-election." She continued, "The infringement of the people's right to political participation caused by the election commission is a clear failure to fulfill the organization's duty to exist, but that cannot serve as grounds to justify the claims of election fraud advocates."
