President Lee Says Voting Rights were Infringed, But Says It Isn’t Fraud and Wants to Arrest Protesters Who Say Otherwise
It will be interesting to see if President Lee goes through with this threats to arrest people who are protesting against the ballot shortage in the recent election that denied people the ability to vote:
President Lee Jae Myung said Sunday that he accepts complaints about voting rights infringement over the unprecedented shortage of ballots in the recent local elections, but rejected claims of election fraud, arguing such claims skew the true nature of the issue.
Lee made the remarks during a meeting with his top aides held remotely from Rome, where he is visiting as part of a broader European trip.
Here is where he threatens protesters:
The protesters have demanded a re-run of the elections, while some argue the ballot shortages were part of a broad election fraud scheme.
The president dismissed such claims, calling them a distortion of the issue and an anti-social crime, saying those who commit such crimes must be held accountable.
“Spreading allegations of election fraud and (raising accusations of) election result manipulation are tantamount to distorting the essence of the matter and constitutes anti-social behavior that insults the precious voice of the people,” he said.
You can read more at the link.
So kind of @GIKorea to package what appears to be gross incompetence by the Central Election Commission into a grand left-wing conspiracy.
The reality is that the loudest calls for a re-election are coming from hardline right-wing activists who seem more interested in generating outrage, traffic, and YouTube clicks than addressing actual election issues.
And let’s not forget that Seoul—the region most affected by the ballot-printing error—re-elected a PPP mayor.
So what exactly are these rabid right-wingers complaining about?
Elections should be very fair and completely transparent.
Korea has been running elections long enough that a mistake like this shouldn’t happen.
But it did. It should be recognized, investigated, exposed, and corrected.
And there should be a very fair map of the political leanings of the areas affected.
If there is a statistically unlikely pattern of it affecting right-leaning areas, as is always the case with election irregularities in America, that should also be openly investigated.
Anybody who makes excuses for election irregularities, no matter what party or who won, is on the wrong side by default.
Honest elections is at a foundational level below parties and ideology…
…unless your ideology is leftist authoritarianism hiding behind claims of equity and diversity.