Fake Voters for United National Democratic Party

It was confirmed yesterday that a reporter who covers the United National Democratic Party (UNDP) were secretly included in the primary vote of the party.

The UNDP primary committee conducted a two-day investigation into its 960,000 primary voters on August 28 and 29, using Auto Calling Service (ACS) to confirm if they registered voluntarily.

The problem is that a Dong-A Ilbo reporter received a call from 02-3788-8888 yesterday afternoon, which represents the investigation call.

As the reporter picked up the phone, the mechanical voice said, “Good afternoon. You are registered as a UNDP primary voter. If you did not register, please press number one. If you did, please hang up.”

As the reporter, who did not register, hesitated for a moment, the voice said, “Thank you,” after which the phone was hung up.

The reporter apparently was registered as a party primary voter without his knowledge and became a “genuine voter” who registered himself.

He submitted his resident registration number, educational background and phone number to register as a reporter covering the ruling Uri Party in September 2005.

It is not the only example of a bogus vote.

Kim Woo-shik, a 38-year-old herb doctor living in Seoul, got the same call in the evening of August 28.

Kim expressed his frustration, saying, “I called the party yesterday to protest. But they said, ‘It appears to be identification theft. You have three options: Report it to the police, talk to the election committee, or do nothing.”

He added, “I registered as a paying member of the Uri Party early last year. But I resigned my membership after a month or two. I’ve never registered as a voter. I just doubted if the UNDP has my number after getting a text message from a UNDP candidate last week.”

Under these circumstances, emotions ran high in the election camps of Lee Hae-chan, Han Myeong-sook, and Rhyu Shi-min, who raised questions on the investigation. They said, “The existence of bogus voters has been confirmed.”

Meanwhile, Lee Mok-hee, leader of the party’s primary committee, said, “The GNP uses the words ‘bogus voters’ and ‘bogus primary.’ But the words amount to humiliation of many citizens who applied to participate in the primary,” adding, “We will disclose the investigation outcome in the morning of August 30.”

tesomiom@donga.com sys1201@donga.com