Faction suspected of corruption accuses panel of disregarding crucial report


Factional fighting in the minority Unified Progressive Party is escalating over a new in-house investigation into vote-rigging allegations.

Kim Dong-han, chief of the inquiry committee, abruptly resigned Tuesday just two hours before the panel reported the results to the national steering committee.

“Judged by my conscience as a jurist, I cannot but admit that the investigation failed to guarantee objectivity and fairness thoroughly,” he said in a statement.

He also cited lack of debate and agreement over contentious issues.

The second investigation was launched in early June after the party’s former mainstream faction questioned the result of the first probe in May into election fraud allegations.

The previous probe accused many of old-guard members of involvement in illegal voting in primaries to pick its proportional representative candidates for the April general elections.

The far-left group also rebuffed the second investigation saying the fact-finding team had disregarded a report which pointed to illegal voting by its rival reformist group.

The group said the report based on an outside research group’s probe showed that most of the candidates received several online ballots from a specific location.

The number of such votes was higher for reformist candidates than former mainstreamers.

For example, the rate of such voting for Oh Ok-man, co-chair of the party’s Jeju chapter, was 11.22 percent.

“The ballots were cast in special polling sites in mining or industrial areas,” said a member of the faction.

“Oh made use of an unauthorized voting system in order to up the number of participants and his ballots were concentrated in a specific time zone.”

Rep. Lee Seok-ki, the de-facto leader of the former mainstream group, received a relatively low 4.72 percent of his votes from three locations, his supporters said.

Oh and eight other reformist candidates withdrew their names form the party list last month, expressing regret over the vote-rigging scandal.

Reps. Lee, Kim Jae-yeon, and two other former mainstream candidates, refused to resign, questioning the credibility of the first fact-finding committee’s probe result.

The party’s disciplinary committee demanded earlier this month that they quit the party. But they filed an objection, asking for further investigation into the vote-manipulating allegation.

“The fact-finding panel deliberately brushed the report aside to justify its initial report, which was partial and groundless,” the group said.

The panel denied the claims.

“The report has not been discarded,” said a panel official. “To what extent it is to be included in the final report is for the panel to decide.”

Amid the factional struggle, the party continued with online voting for its new leadership.

The chairmanship election is currently a two-way competition between interim chief Kang Ki-kab and Kang Byeong-gi, who represents the former mainstream group.

The latter once said that the disputed duo, Lee and Kim, should not be expelled until they are proven responsible for the irregularity.

However, he recently backtracked and said that defection and expulsion could also be an option.

“If Lee and Kim turn out to be clearly responsible (for the vote-rigging), they are to face due measures,” he said in a radio interview on Monday.

This came amid escalating political pressure applied on the UPP by other leading parties.

“In order for the UPP to win back the public’s trust, Kang Ki-kab should be elected chairman and solve all remaining irregularity allegations,” said Rep. Park Jie-won, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic United Party.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)