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PPP accuses Lee of election interference after poll visit, online statements

Published: 31 May. 2026, 17:07 Updated: 31 May. 2026, 19:23

President Lee Jae Myung, left, and first lady Kim Hea Kyung walk out of the polling booth holding their votes during early voting in Jongno District, central Seoul, on May 29. [YONHAP]

President Lee Jae Myung’s early vote on Friday and subsequent social media posts encouraging voter turnout are drawing accusations of election interference from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) ahead of the June 3 local and by-elections.

Lee on Saturday, the last day of early voting, posted on X, urging people to vote. "Giving up on voting is not neutrality — it is siding with those who harm your life and your community," he wrote. "Voting is the lifeline of democracy," and "giving up on voting is the same as giving up on the future of yourself and your family."

The next morning, the president posted again, quoting what he attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato: "The price of political indifference is to be ruled by the worst of the worst.

"A sovereign's silence and abandonment of the vote allows those who deceive the people, abuse power for private gain and ruin the lives of my family and me. If there are politicians or political groups who find these words uncomfortable, they are precisely the entrenched old guard that voters must overcome through the ballot."

The PPP argued the posts were not a neutral call to vote, but a partisan political attack dressed up as civic encouragement.

"President Lee's social media post says exactly what I wanted to say to the people — if we give up on voting, we are giving Lee Jae Myung, who abuses power for the private gain of having his trials cancelled, the opportunity to erase his own crimes," said party leader Jang Dong-hyeok during a press conference on Sunday.

"While it ostensibly encouraged voter participation, in reality it amounted to abandoning the duty of political neutrality by branding political opponents as ‘vested interests clinging to outdated practices,’ ‘the worst kind of lowlifes,’ and ‘people who destroy the lives of families,’ and then attacking them,” a senior party official, unnamed, added.

The main opposition People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok, center, and fellow lawmakers speak before filing a complaint against President Lee Jae Myung with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Jongno District, central Seoul, on May 30, alleging a violation of ballot secrecy under the Public Official Election Act. [YONHAP]

The party also took direct aim at Lee's actions while at the ballot box for early voting on Friday.

After voting with first lady Kim Hea Kyung at a polling station in Jongno District, central Seoul, Lee stepped out of the booth holding his ballot and asked an election official whether a partially stamped circle would affect its validity. The official assured him that the ballot would not be invalidated.

PPP members are calling Lee's actions deliberate. "This is an unprecedented case of a president exposing his ballot — an illegal abuse of official power," the party's chief spokesperson Park Sung-hoon said in a statement on Friday. "Exposing a ballot marked for the Democratic Party to the entire nation at a polling station is a meticulously planned and underhanded illegal election act."

"This is behavior that says the law doesn't matter at all — it's confidence that the election commission would never dare invalidate his vote," PPP floor leader Song Eon-seog wrote on Facebook on Sunday.

On Saturday, the PPP filed a police complaint alleging that Lee's ballot exposure violated the principle of guaranteeing the secrecy of voting under the Public Official Election Act.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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