Pro-Lee lawmaker suspected to have exercised power on opinion poll

As the Democratic Party of Korea conducted a public opinion poll excluding incumbent lawmakers in constituencies that aren’t related to Lee Jae-myung, which caused the party’s favoritism for its certain members, a suspicion was raised that Kim Byung-kee, a key pro-Lee member of the party, exercised his power to additionally select the survey company in question after an official selection process ended. Kim is Chief Deputy Secretary-General of the party and a secretary of the party’s nomination management committee.

According to the Dong-A Ilbo’s collection of information on Thursday, a survey company named Research DNA was additionally selected a day after the official results of a selection process for survey companies to evaluate the party’s incumbent members last year. Three companies – KSOI, Uri Research, and T-bridge – were initially selected, and Research DNA was added as the fourth one. A similar thing happened again while selecting survey companies for this year’s election. “There were only three companies at first, but Research DNA was added later as Kim raised a complaint about the exclusion of the company to Jung Pil-mo, the chair of the party’s election management committee,” said a key party member. Research DNA participated in all public opinion polls of the party related to the nomination process, including the evaluation of incumbent members, a candidate fit survey, and an automated response system vote for the election.

Some party members believe that a sudden resignation on Wednesday by Jung, who served as the chair of the election management committee after his announcement to not run for the general elections, might have been affected by the scandal surrounding Kim’s exercise of his power. “Jung said he cannot be sacrificed for such injustice,” said a lawmaker close to Jung.

“We cannot be involved in the evaluation process of elective offices as we are also subject to the evaluation,” said Kim. “It is impossible that I exercised my power on the party’s election management committee in selecting survey companies.”


Sung-Hwi Kang yolo@donga.com