UNDP Holds Second Mobile Phone Vote

The United New Democratic Party (UNDP) held a second round of mobile phone voting on Thursday as part of its presidential primary.

The mobile phone voting took place between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. with a total of 75,000 eligible voters. The UNDP will announce the results of the round at 8 p.m. at the party’s headquarters in Dangsan-dong, Seoul.

Former Gyeonggi Governor Sohn Hak-gyu topped the first round of mobile phone voting, conducted on Tuesday, with a total of 30,000 eligible voters. Sohn earned 645 more votes (three percent) than former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young.

The UNDP primary candidates will also participate in the final round of televised debates at 11pm on Thursday, which will be hosted by KBS.

The new party will also conclude its opinion polls, which began on Wednesday, as of Friday. The polls, which have been conducted by two consigned polling agencies, with five thousand randomly selected voters nationwide, will end when the required sample of 2,500 votes is filled in accordance with the demographic proportion. The results will also be counted in determining the UNDP presidential nominee.

The UNDP will conduct the third round of mobile phone voting on Sunday, with 140,000 eligible voters set to participate. Those who have participated in the early rounds of voting are excluded from the voters list. The UNDP will also hold primary elections on Sunday with 1.1 million eligible voters visiting polling stations in eight cities nationwide.

In addition, the UNDP will announce the winner of the primary race by combining the results of local delegate votes, mobile phone votes, and opinion poll results on next Monday, after holding its “Candidate Nomination Convention” at the Olympic Park in Seoul.

swpark@donga.com