Rep. Yeom Tae-young of the Democratic Party of Korea criticized the pro-Jung (pro-Jung Chung-rae) faction's pushback against the adoption of a preferential voting system for the party leader election at the Aug. 17 national convention, calling it "the ultimate self-contradiction." Yeom serves as head of the general situation room for the campaign of former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, who is running for the party leadership.
"It cannot be overturned based on political advantage or disadvantage," Yeom said on Facebook late on the 8th. "Ahead of last year's extraordinary national convention in July to elect the party leader and Supreme Council members, the Democratic Party's party affairs committee resolved that a preferential vote would be held if there are three or more candidates in the primary," he said. "The convention preparatory committee's decision on the preferential voting system this time also has no defects whatsoever in the application of the party constitution and regulations or in procedure."
"Yet now, the former party leader's side is trying to overturn a matter that completed a party affairs committee resolution last year, and a matter already decided by the convention preparatory committee, simply on the grounds that it could be disadvantageous to him," Yeom said. "This, rather, directly violates the spirit of the party constitution and regulations."
He added, "As for the logic that the preferential voting system violates the party constitution and regulations, the Democratic Party's regulatory framework already recognizes 'preferential voting as a method of conducting runoff elections.'"
"What the convention preparatory committee resolved is not something to be placed on the scale of bargaining among party leader candidates or political advantage or disadvantage," Yeom said. "I am simply appalled at this utterly absurd attempt to overturn the convention rules." He criticized it as "a trick that can absolutely never be allowed," saying, "It feels like watching the ultimate self-contradiction — insisting that the rules made when he himself was elected last year were, now that it comes to this, illegal."
