Police on Tuesday sought warrants to arrest six aides to the disgraced former leader of the minor opposition Unified Progressive Party (UPP) on charges of tampering with a crucial voter survey ahead of April’s general elections.
The UPP and the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) chose single joint candidates for the parliamentary elections based on the results of public surveys asking voters which contenders they favored.
Police said the six aides of Lee Jung-hee, the former UPP co-chairperson, sent hundreds of mobile phone text messages asking party members to lie about their ages and vote for Lee who sought a ticket for a legislative seat in Seoul’s Gwanak district. The automated survey calls were made randomly.
The survey was designed to select the candidate for each constituency most likely to win by assessing responses from different age groups. Lee’s aides allegedly attempted to boost her ratings among younger age groups on tips that enough responses from older groups had already been collected.
Lee eventually won the single opposition candidacy, defeating her rival from the DUP, but dropped out after revelations about her aides’ actions.
The former lawmaker also resigned her leadership post in May, taking responsibility for the party being torn apart by a series of alleged election frauds.
The court will decide later in the day whether to issue the arrest warrants or not, the police said. (Yonhap News)