People Power Party candidates in the Chungcheong region for the June 3 local elections gathered in one place and condemned the ruling party's push for the "fabricated indictment special counsel act."
Kim Young-hwan, the North Chungcheong governor; Lee Jang-woo, the Daejeon mayor; and Choi Min-ho, the Sejong mayoral candidate held a joint news conference on the morning of the 7th at the Sejong City Hall plaza and criticized the Democratic Party of Korea's push for the "special counsel act to get to the bottom of the fabricated indictment," calling it "a legislative outrage that destroys the separation of powers," and urged its withdrawal.
In a resolution they released that day, they said, "The special counsel act in question is an anti-constitutional act borrowing the name of the law," and noted, "It flatly denies the fundamental principle of democracy that all people are equal before the law."
In particular, regarding the provision granting the special counsel the authority to cancel indictments, they pointed out that it is "an unconstitutional element that insults the principle prohibiting judging one's own case and shakes the foundation of Korea's criminal justice system."
They added, "The 5.7 million Chungcheong residents will fight to the end to block the fabricated indictment special counsel act with a spirit of saving the nation."
Kim Tae-heum, the South Chungcheong governor, who is still performing gubernatorial duties because he has not yet registered as a preliminary candidate, also warned in a separate statement, "This bill is 'wiinseolbeop (law made for a person),' meant solely to hand a get-out-of-jail-free card to President Lee Jae-myung, and an attempt to overturn the judicial system by wielding parliamentary power as a weapon," adding, "The price of abusing power will surely come back as a harsh boomerang."
The People Power Party candidates for heads of metropolitan governments in the Chungcheong region demanded that Democratic Party of Korea candidates for metropolitan chiefs—Heo Tae-jung (Daejeon), Cho Sang-ho (Sejong), Park Soo-hyun (South Chungcheong), and Shin Yong-han (North Chungcheong)—"state clearly whether they are for or against the special counsel act."