Lee Jun-seok says PPP's call to scrap early voting aligns party with Yoon

Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok on Tuesday criticized People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok for calling to abolish early voting, saying the proposal amounted to restricting citizens' opportunities to exercise their right to vote.

In a Facebook post, Lee said Jang's conclusion at a press conference was to abolish early voting.

"Early voting was introduced to replace absentee voting, which required a cumbersome registration process," Lee said. "For young people who cannot easily change their registered address because of short-term work assignments or studies, it is the last safeguard protecting their vote."

Lee said it was "preposterous" that Jang was condemning the ballot shortage that had prevented citizens from voting while at the same time proposing to eliminate the very opportunity for citizens to vote. "At a moment when we are demanding accountability for the violation of suffrage caused by a ballot shortage, calling to reduce the chances for citizens to vote in the first place is putting the cart before the horse," he said.

Lee also said that early voting was introduced during the Park Geun-hye administration with the agreement of both ruling and opposition parties. "If you want to abolish it, go ahead and introduce a bill, hold a public hearing and debate it openly," he said.

He added that if the PPP believed early voting was a channel for election fraud, it should prove that claim in open debate rather than be driven by conspiracy theories. "If you have the courage to declare yourselves a party swayed by conspiracy theories, you should at least have the courage to prove those theories as fact in a public forum," he said.

Lee was particularly pointed in saying that the PPP had, in effect, declared itself aligned with former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn's Liberty and Innovation party, which has pushed a single agenda of alleged election fraud. "They have declared alignment with former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who, in a state of delusion, sent troops to the National Election Commission — making the PPP a 'Yoon Again' party," he said.

He added that Jang had "gulped down a cup of seawater to quench his thirst" and would now have no choice but to keep drinking.

Earlier Tuesday, Jang held a press conference calling for the local elections to be rerun following an unprecedented ballot shortage. He argued that early voting was one of the causes of the disenfranchisement and said the number of main voting days should be increased while early voting must be abolished. "We must move quickly to revise the electoral law so that the by-election can be held without early voting," he said.