The Democratic Party of Korea on Monday lashed out at the People Power Party's resolution to file petitions for re-elections in six regions including Seoul, calling it an act of election denial and an outdated practice of riding on election-fraud claims for partisan gain.
Kang Joon-hyun, the Democratic Party's chief spokesperson, leveled the criticism in a written briefing. "The People Power Party today held an emergency Supreme Council meeting and hastily resolved to file sweeping re-election petitions for six electoral districts, including Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Busan, Ulsan, and South Jeolla and Gwangju," he said.
Kang described the re-election petition resolution as "a clear act of election denial that negates the sacred will of the sovereign people expressed in the June 3 local elections and causes extreme chaos in local communities ahead of the launch of new local governments."
"This surprise petition has nothing to do with correcting poor election management," he said, calling it "an irresponsible political maneuver by Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk to defuse internal pressure for a full resignation following the local election rout and to escape the crisis of the leadership's collapse."
"Under the Public Official Election Act, election invalidation is a legal domain recognized only when it is clearly proven, through strict legal review, that the election results were substantially affected," he said. "Severely punishing the National Election Commission's mismanagement and overturning the entire election itself without any concrete fact-checking are entirely separate matters."
Kang said, "The People Power Party's claim that it will nullify all elections en masse based solely on its own estimates is an extralegal idea that shakes the foundations of the rule of law." He urged the party to "immediately withdraw its 'blind petition' for the purpose of changing the political landscape and its incitement of unconstitutional conspiracy theories, and to immediately join the fact-finding procedures within the National Assembly that the people have ordered."
