The People Power Party Central Ethics Committee decided on a heavy penalty of "one-year suspension of party membership" for Rep. Bae Hyun-jin. With Bae's party membership suspended while serving as Seoul chapter head, the People Power Party's internal feud over nomination rights for local elections is escalating.
◇ Heavy penalty decided over posting a minor child's photo on social media
On the 13th, the People Power Party Central Ethics Committee issued a news release saying it would impose a one-year suspension of party membership on Bae for violating Article 20 of the Ethics Committee regulations and Article 4, Paragraph 1, Items 2, 6, and 7 of the Ethics Rules.
What the party ethics panel took issue with was the unauthorized posting on a social media (SNS) account of a photo of a minor child. On Jan. 25, Bae posted on her SNS about the withdrawal of the nomination of former Minister nominee Lee Hye-hoon, and a user left a comment, leading to a war of words online.
In response, Bae said, "Leaving malicious comments while hanging up a child's photo," and posted on her SNS, without mosaic blurring, a photo of a minor girl believed to be a family member of the user. As controversy grew, Bae deleted the problematic photo four days later.
The party Central Ethics Committee said, "Posting a minor child's photo on an SNS account could constitute psychological, emotional, insulting, and threatening expression, amounts to defamation of others, and may be behavior that causes discomfort to the general public in an online SNS setting," and, "We judge that such behavior toward a minor runs counter to the ethical sensibilities of the general public and public sentiment," deciding on a heavy penalty.
As for the claims that she used the status and influence of the Seoul chapter head—at the center of the initial controversy—to express her personal political position as if it were the will of the entire People Power Party Seoul chapter, and for SNS posts about former President Yoon Suk-yeol, Kim Keon-hee, and party leader Jang Dong-hyeok, the panel found they warranted relatively light discipline or were not subject to discipline.
◇ Clash between pro-leadership and pro-Han factions peaks over Seoul nominations
With the decision to impose a heavy penalty of a one-year suspension of party membership on Bae, the People Power Party is expected to plunge once again into extreme infighting. With local elections ahead, a by-election for the Seoul chapter head, who will lead nomination work in the capital, has become unavoidable. In September last year, Bae won the Seoul chapter head race with 45.10% of the vote, defeating Rep. Cho Jeong-hoon (43.07%) and Gang Seong-man, Geumcheon District party chapter head (11.83%).
The People Power Party's central headquarters and the Seoul chapter have been at odds over nomination rights. The People Power Party recently passed revisions to the party constitution and rules to have the central headquarters directly nominate heads of basic local governments with populations over 500,000. As a result, the central headquarters will exercise nomination rights for district chiefs in Seoul's Songpa District, where pro-Han (pro-Han Dong-hoon) lawmakers Bae Hyun-jin and Park Jeong-hoon have constituencies, and Seoul's Gangnam District, where Rep. Ko Dong-jin has a constituency.
The pro-Han faction and junior lawmakers in the People Power Party raised strong objections to this move but failed to block passage of the revisions. On top of that, with the heavy penalty against Bae, the pro-Han faction and junior lawmakers have been pushed further into a corner.
A junior People Power Party lawmaker said, "Who could accept disciplining, for a ridiculous reason, the person directly elected by more than 4,000 Seoul delegates as the overall manager of the local elections?" and added, "We should explore response measures after the Lunar New Year holiday."