Ballots may be annulled as database for leadership election damaged


The leadership election of the minority Unified Progressive Party was halted Wednesday after online voting system broke down.

The party’s online voting system started to fail sporadically late Tuesday night and the interim decision-making body decided at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday to temporarily halt the vote, according to party officials.

The election database was irreparably damaged. Some 17,000 ballots or 30 percent of the total eligible votes may now be annulled.

Opposing factions blasted each other over the breakdown and responsibility.

“Rep. Kang Ki-kab and his emergency leadership council should resign en masse, taking responsibility for the situation,” said Rep. Kim Mi-hyui, a member of the party’s former mainstream group.

She attributed the error to the online server management company and blamed Kang’s panel for hastily entering the contract.

“The council pledged to prioritize a fair and strict leadership election, but four out of five of the members of the interim leadership committee entered the race, diminishing their credibility and equity,” she said.

Interim chief Kang is currently competing with Kang Byeong-gi, a former mainstream figure, for the party’s chairmanship.

“It’s not appropriate for him to preside over the party’s leadership election.” Kim said.

Kang’s reformist group accused its rival group of launching a political offensive in an attempt to water down its irregularities during the March primaries to pick parliamentary candidates.

“The claim of the so-called former mainstreamers is an attempt to blanket the fact-finding committee’s report, which found them responsible for the vote manipulation,” said Kang.

The in-house investigatory panel announced its final report on Tuesday, largely holding the old-guard faction responsible for rigging the elections for proportional representative candidates.

However, the disputed figures ― Reps. Lee Seok-ki and Kim Jae-yeon ― once again rejected the disciplinary committee’s expulsion order.

Kang also demanded that the voting process reopen as soon as possible, after a thorough inspection of the hardware server and the voting system.

“Only by electing a legitimate leadership and restoring the party’s order, can we gain back the public’ trust,” he said.

The UPP’s leadership election started on Monday and was scheduled to end on Saturday, with the online vote ending Thursday.

The former joint chairmanship, including the former mainstream leader Lee Jung-hee, resigned last month amid the party’s vote-rigging scandal.

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