As ruling and opposition parties escalate their feud over the shortage of ballot papers that occurred during the June 3 local elections, the Democratic Party of Korea urged the People Power Party to immediately stop old-era political strife and show restraint.
Democratic Party of Korea floor spokesperson Lee Ju-hee said in a written briefing on the 13th, "At a time when the National Assembly must pool all its efforts to protect the people's suffrage, the People Power Party is exploiting a national crisis as political strife to tarnish the Lee Jae-myung administration."
The spokesperson directly rebutted People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok's move to take issue with National Election Commission acting chief Wi Cheol-hwan and President Lee Jae-myung being classmates from the bar exam. The spokesperson said, "An acting system due to the chairperson's resignation is an unavoidable administrative procedure," adding, "Even so, harping on personal ties and dragging in the president makes viewers frown."
The spokesperson continued, "Quibbling attacks that insist on collusion with the administration by citing the election commission's alleged bias over wording in a ruling party basic-level councilor candidate's campaign brochure is a petty 'whataboutism' that forgets their own past," adding, "We understand the instinct to seize on any pretext and weave it into material to attack the president and the government and ruling party, but at the very least they should refrain from spitting in their own face."
The spokesperson drew a line, saying that while the infringement of citizens' precious rights due to the election commission's poor management is indeed a grave mistake that betrays the institution's raison d'être, it cannot be used as a pretext for an election-fraud conspiracy theory or for demands for a rerun of the election as argued by some figures aligned with the opposition. The spokesperson also jabbed that the People Power Party should first rein in its own extreme voices and internal turmoil.
The spokesperson added, "Now is not the time for political strife but for bipartisan cooperation to uncover the truth of the infringement of suffrage and to protect constitutional fundamental rights," and, "The Democratic Party of Korea will by no means leave this matter solely to the election commission's internal probe. As we have already submitted a request for a parliamentary investigation, we will proceed with it swiftly, and if necessary, we will keep the option of a special counsel fully open and pursue it in parallel."