PPP suspends approval of Yongin-gap organization chair amid ARS voting irregularities

The People Power Party said Monday it had decided to suspend approval of the newly elected organization committee chair for the Yongin-gap constituency in Gyeonggi Province.

Chief PPP Spokesperson Park Sung-hoon made the announcement after the party's supreme council meeting, telling reporters that "some objections were raised during the ARS polling process." He said the concerns were brought up at the supreme council meeting and that the party had decided not to reach a conclusion on the matter for now, instead suspending approval until a final investigation is complete.

The party had announced Thursday that Yoon Jae-bok had defeated Supreme Council Member Yang Hyang-ja in a runoff for the organization committee chair position, conducted via mobile ARS polling among all registered party members in Yongin-gap. Yoon had been set to be formally appointed following a supreme council vote.

Park said that during the ARS vote, held over the holiday period, a specific telecommunications carrier had flagged the calls as spam, resulting in roughly 40 calls going undelivered to registered party members. He added that the Yeouido Institute would need to conduct an investigation to determine the full facts.

Asked whether similar problems may have occurred in other constituencies, Park said the possibility was "entirely plausible." He added that the Yeouido Institute planned to conduct a comprehensive investigation covering technical issues — including connectivity problems between registered party members and carriers — as well as any other factors that could have caused calls to be misidentified as spam.

On the objections raised, Park said Supreme Council Member Yang had not commented directly on the matter since she was a party to the dispute, but noted that Yang had said she accepted the result while raising concerns about potential problems that could arise in future ARS polling conducted in a similar manner.

On the question of a possible by-election for Yongin-gap, Park said the party had "not yet opened up that possibility," adding that a decision on whether to grant approval would be made after reviewing the results of the Yeouido Institute's investigation.