Primary disputes disrupt Seoul education chief campaigns

The nomination process for both the liberal and conservative blocs in the upcoming election for Seoul education superintendent has been marred by disputes among candidates.

Seoul education superintendent preliminary candidate Han Man-jung on Wednesday filed a police complaint against fellow candidate Jung Geun-sik, accusing him of falsely presenting himself as the "single candidate of the liberal-progressive bloc."

“The superintendent election must be one we can face without shame before our children,” Han said. “Jung must immediately step down as a candidate and cooperate fully with the police investigation.”

Jung, who is seeking a second term, said Thursday that a court decision rejecting an injunction filed by some candidates who took part in the primary had been finalized. The injunction had sought to bar him from using the title “single candidate.”

“This decision goes beyond whether the title can be used. It is the result of a comprehensive review of the overall credibility of the primary,” Jung said.

“I once again ask the candidates who took part in the unification primary to join us,” Jung added Thursday as he officially registered as a candidate. “It is time to move forward as one team.”

Six preliminary candidates from the liberal bloc ran for the Seoul education superintendent post earlier this year.

A committee was formed to facilitate the bloc’s candidate unification process in April, but concerns over fairness were raised from the start.

The unification process was based entirely on voting by a citizen participation group.

The vote, however, was delayed by five days after the number of registered participants surged by 30,000 shortly before voting was set to begin. The committee ultimately conducted a full review of the list after it was alleged that a third party had paid participation fees for some 800 of the registered group members.

Jung eventually emerged as the winner. But two preliminary candidates who lost, Han and Kang Shin-man, alleged voting fraud and refused to accept the results.

Han and Kang held a joint press conference on April 28 in front of the Seoul Jongno Police Station and filed a request for an investigation into the candidate unification committee.

The two candidates claimed the committee had systematically intervened in the voting process to help Jung become the unified candidate. The committee has denied all allegations.

Han has claimed that the committee arbitrarily removed voters who supported him from the list of participants under the pretext of verification, or failed to send them online voting links. He also claimed that, during the period for filing objections to the primary results, the committee deleted servers containing the citizen participation group list and vote-counting records.

The candidates also claimed the votes were counted without observers present.

“More than 6,000 voters were stripped of their voting rights without explanation, and undemocratic actions were carried out to select voters who supported a particular candidate,” Han said during the press conference.

The committee denied the allegations.

It said manipulation was fundamentally impossible under a system in which the committee could not know which candidate each member of the citizen participation group supported. It also said it deleted original documents to protect participants' personal information. Records of payments and voting system server logs remain intact.

The committee also said all candidates or their representatives observed the counting process and that related records, including signatures, remain.

After the allegations were raised, Jung sought to bolster the legitimacy of his candidacy by securing support from former liberal-progressive education superintendents.

Jung registered as a candidate Thursday, while Han said he would register separately Friday. Another liberal preliminary candidate, Hong Jae-nam, has also said he would register.

Ahead of his registration, Jung said he was determined to move “beyond division toward unity, beyond conflict toward responsibility and beyond competition toward the future of Seoul education.”

Jung’s calls for unity reflect concerns within the liberal bloc that its supporters’ votes may be split among three candidates.

Similar disputes have emerged within the conservative bloc, where some candidates have taken legal action over their own unification process.

Preliminary candidate Ryu Su-no filed an injunction seeking to suspend the effect of a public opinion poll that confirmed Yoon Ho-sang as the conservative bloc’s unified candidate.

On the conservative side, Kim Young-bae, Ryu Su-no and Cho Jeon-hyuk are expected to register as candidates. There are also moves toward another round of unification, with Ryu and Cho pursuing candidate unification based on public opinion polling.

Against this backdrop, as many as seven or more candidates could appear on the ballot for the Seoul education superintendent race. Candidate registration closes Friday.