People Power Party Files Election Petitions for 11 Districts; Democratic Party Calls It a 'Shielding Tactic' for Jang Dong-hyuk

[Anchor]
The People Power Party (PPP) has filed election petitions for a total of 11 districts, including those in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The proposal by party leader Jang Dong-hyuk to file petitions for all 16 cities and provinces nationwide was not adopted. The Democratic Party of Korea criticized the move as a "shielding petition" intended to protect Representative Jang.

Reported by Kim Kwan-jin.

[Reporter]

The regions where the People Power Party has decided to file election petitions include seven areas: Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Busan, Ulsan, Gwangju, and North Chungcheong Province.

Daegu and South Gyeongsang Province, which were initially under consideration, were excluded from the final list, taking into account that the PPP candidates had won in those regions.

During the general meeting of lawmakers, party leader Jang Dong-hyuk argued that all 16 cities and provinces should be included in the petitions to prepare for the possibility of further issues being uncovered.

In contrast, the newly inaugurated floor leader, Chung Jin-suk, expressed the position that the scope should be limited to regions where actual delays or suspensions of voting occurred.

After about three hours of discussion among the lawmakers, it was decided to limit the party-level petitions to seven regions, in line with the floor leader's opinion.

The People Power Party stated that while the central party is filing petitions for seven regions, there are four additional regions where local government head candidates have expressed their intent to file petitions directly.

Specifically, the party announced that it has completed the submission of election petitions for a total of 11 regions, including Daejeon, South Chungcheong Province, Sejong, and North Jeolla Province.

The Democratic Party criticized this move as a "shielding petition" for leader Jang Dong-hyuk.

[Interview] Han Byung-do / Democratic Party Floor Leader: "I urge Representative Jang Dong-hyuk and the conspiracy theorists within the People Power Party, who act like shamans regarding election fraud, to please regain their reason and cooperate with the parliamentary investigation and the efforts to uncover the truth behind this situation."

Meanwhile, Representative Jung Hee-yong of the People Power Party stated that at least 39 voters gave up or were unable to cast their ballots at 26 polling stations nationwide where voting was suspended on the day of the local elections. An official from the National Election Commission confirmed that this figure is accurate.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-hee)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.