The liberal opposition alliance suffered a setback Wednesday from allegations of irregularities involving heavyweight members in the process of fielding unified candidates.

Rep. Lee Jung-hee, one of the three co-chairs of the far-left minority United Progressive Party, is accused of attempting to manipulate an opinion poll to win the joint candidacy in the forthcoming parliamentary election. The UPP is the smaller of the two-party alliance with the Democratic United Party.

Two of her aides allegedly sent out text messages to about 200 UPP members, asking them to fake their age in the phone survey conducted over the weekend. The poll had a fixed quota per age group. 

One of the messages said: “Answers from those in their 60s will be discarded from now on. Please report your age to be something else.”

Lee on Wednesday apologized for the wrongdoings by her aides, but refused to give up her nomination.

“After thinking about the possible impact that their (acts) could have had on the outcome of the survey, I decided that asking for a new round of contest would be a more responsible act than my giving up the nomination,” she said on a radio program.

She claimed that the text messages had affected just 200 out of tens of thousands of potential respondents and that she would have won anyway.

The leftist politician beat Rep. Kim Hee-chull of the main opposition DUP in the opinion poll to clench the ticket for the Gwanak-B constituency in southwestern Seoul.

Kim, who currently represents the constituency, rejected her offer for a new contest, pressuring Lee to give up the candidacy.

“Rep. Lee should take responsibility for the irregularities. A new contest is nothing but a way for her to get away with what her aides have done,” he said.

The lawmaker said he would run as an independent candidate, if she does not resign.

However, it was revealed Wednesday that Kim had tried the same tactic to influence the poll results.

A text message allegedly sent by Kim’s confidant was disclosed, advising recipients to lie about their age.

On Monday, the DUP-UPP alliance unveiled a set of 69 joint candidates who will fight candidates from the conservative ruling Saenuri Party in the April 11 election.
Lee and 10 other UPP members made it to the list, beating their DUP rivals in the weekend poll.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)