Parties on edge ahead of Oh Se-hoon appeal ruling; Democratic Party leader says Seoul mayoral election 'increasingly likely'

Ruling and opposition parties are watching closely ahead of the appeals court ruling in Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's Public Official Election Act violation case — a verdict that could determine whether Oh keeps his post and reshape the race for the next presidential and party leadership contests. The Democratic Party of Korea called for a strict ruling based on law and evidence, while the People Power Party pushed back, accusing the Democratic Party of pressuring the judiciary.

Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok, appearing on the program "Minti 07" on Friday, said he was bracing for the first-instance guilty verdict to be upheld. "Before getting into the legal arguments, I am mentally preparing on the assumption that the original ruling will stand," Kim said. "I see no circumstances that would change the first-instance guilty verdict, so I lean toward thinking it will go the same way."

Kim said that mental preparation amounted to accepting that a Seoul mayoral by-election was increasingly likely. "Preparing ourselves mentally means the probability of holding a Seoul mayoral election is rising," he said. "From our side, it is better to think and plan that way, and we are reviewing various matters with Seoul Metropolitan Party Chairman Kim Young-bae at the center."

On the question of candidate eligibility for a potential Seoul mayoral race, Kim said the party was weighing how to run a primary election. "There are candidates from various factions, and there could also be candidates from outside the party, so we are thinking about how to most efficiently pool everyone's strengths," he said.

Seo Young-gyo, the Democratic Party chairwoman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, issued a statement during a national audit of the Prosecution Service on Thursday, saying the 2004 election law that toughened grounds for invalidating an election victory had been called the "Oh Se-hoon Act." "The time has come for him to step down from public office under that very law," she said.

People Power Party Secretary-General Jung Seok-jun said Seo's statement crossed a clear line. "Is it not a blatant violation of judicial independence and interference in a trial for the chairwoman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee — who must remain neutral as the body overseeing the courts — to pressure a specific trial's outcome and even its sentence?" he said.

Jung said Seo had openly demanded a prison sentence from the bench ahead of Oh's appeal ruling. "This is the typical arrogance of someone who wants to bend even the political neutrality of investigative agencies and the independence of the judiciary to the will of those in power," he said.

PPP lawmaker Kim Tae-gyu, who chairs the party's legal advisory committee, held a press conference and said the Seoul High Court falls under the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's oversight and that a comprehensive audit was still scheduled for Monday. "This is a clear case of interference in — and intimidation of — a court that is subject to the committee's oversight," he said.

PPP floor spokesperson Choi Su-jin also weighed in, saying she hoped the appeals court would deliver a fair judgment based solely on clear evidence and strict law, free from the speculation and conflicting testimony that had shaped the first-instance ruling. "They are forcibly linking Mayor Oh to a financial transaction between third parties he knew nothing about and insisting it constitutes 'proxy payment,'" she said. "This is nothing more than a far-fetched argument that ignores the basic principles of criminal trials."

The Democratic Party maintained that, since the first-instance court had handed down a ruling that would strip Oh of his post, the appeals court should be equally strict. Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief spokesperson of the Democratic Party's Seoul chapter, said in a statement on Thursday that the party was urging the court "to uphold the transparency of political funding and the fairness of elections with a strict ruling based on law and evidence."

Lee said the first-instance court had sentenced Oh to lose his mayoral post on the basis of clear evidence. "The illegal transfer of money was established as fact in court," she said.

Lee called on the appeals court to rule with equal rigor. "Neither his status as the sitting Seoul mayor nor his political influence as a leading presidential contender can serve as a shield against legal accountability," she said.