Police on the 11th questioned the complainant over allegations that Democratic Party of Korea Seoul mayoral candidate Chong Won-o distorted and circulated polling results.
Seoul Seongdong Police Station said it summoned and questioned a representative of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jae-seop on the morning of the same day, after Kim filed a complaint accusing Chong of violating the Public Official Election Act. It came a day after the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency assigned the case to Seongdong Police Station.
Earlier, Chong's camp compiled results from three polling institutes on the suitability of Seoul mayoral candidates among Democratic Party of Korea supporters and produced promotional materials. Citing this, Kim filed a police complaint on the 7th accusing Chong of violating the Public Official Election Act, saying Chong had stitched together only results favorable to him.
The polling issue Kim pointed out had also been raised first by Park Ju-min, a Democratic Party of Korea preliminary candidate for Seoul mayor. Park said of the promotional materials distributed by Chong's side that "the figures at the top of the handout were not the official approval ratings released by the polling institute," adding that they were "figures recalculated by arbitrarily excluding the 'don't know' or 'no response' group and comparing only the ratios among candidates."
Chong, for his part, maintains there is no potential violation of the Public Official Election Act. Appearing on CBS Radio on the morning of the 7th, Chong said, "We adjusted the figures to percentages, excluding the nonresponse group, in line with the Democratic Party of Korea primary rules," adding, "We proceeded after internal legal review and judged it lawful."