Closer-than-expected vote suggests trouble inside the DP

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung in a kitchen at an elementary school in Eunpyeong District, in Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

While Democratic Party chairman Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly avoided a prosecutors’ arrest warrant on Monday, continues with his daily routine, his party has been dealing with a potential internal rebellion.

“Instead of taking interest in catching Lee Jae-myung, please take more interest in how to catch inflation, improve the economy and better the lives of the people,” Lee said Tuesday.

The first thing Lee did the day after the National Assembly vote on his arrest warrant was visit an elementary school in Eunpyeong District, Seoul, to discuss the working conditions of canteen workers.

The DP leader did not answer questions on his next steps or whether he will communicate with opponents within his party.

On Monday, the National Assembly rejected a motion to approve an arrest warrant for Lee in connection to several charges, including breach of duty and bribery during his term as Seongnam mayor.

The allegations surround the controversial Daejang-dong development project, which provided massive profits to private developers, as well as corporate sponsorships to Seongnam’s football team made by major companies such as Doosan and Naver.

Some 297 of the National Assembly’s 299 lawmakers voted on the motion, with 139 voting in favor and 138 against.

Some 11 votes were ruled invalid, while nine lawmakers abstained.

By law, for an arrest warrant motion to be approved, half of the lawmakers attending have to approve it — in this case, 149 votes.

Though Lee managed to avoid a date with a judge and potential arrest, Monday’s ballot result was nevertheless a shock, especially to the DP leadership, which expressed repeated confidence that the motion would be crushed with the party’s overwhelming support.

The DP enjoys a parliamentary majority with 169 votes. The party’s leadership was expecting no fewer than 170 votes against Monday’s motion, taking into account independent lawmakers with close ties to the DP such as Yoon Mee-hyang.

This would have trounced the People Power Party (PP)’s 115 votes, the Justice Party’s six votes and the Transition Korea Party’s one vote.

DP lawmaker Noh Woong-rae dodged an arrest warrant motion in December when the National Assembly rejected it in a 161-101 vote.

Jung Chung-rae, a member of the DP’s supreme council, said on Monday morning that the motion would lose with an overwhelming majority against it.

“Protecting Lee is protecting the Democratic Party,” Jung said.

That votes in favor of the motion outnumbered those against it, and that some DP lawmakers intentionally invalidated their ballots, suggests frustration with Lee inside the DP itself as the party suffers declining poll numbers with the general election only a year away.

It took over an hour to count the ballots on Monday as lawmakers argued over the validity of two votes.

Had the two votes been counted, the DP could have at least argued that votes against the motion outnumbered those in favor.

However, the National Assembly speaker counted only one as valid.

The party’s floor leader Park Hong-keun said the DP leadership will deeply consider the meaning of Monday’s vote.

“There shouldn’t be further confusion within the party or an internal split due to yesterday’s event,” Park said in a party meeting Tuesday.

He said the National Assembly’s rejection of the prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant was “the natural result of protecting the spirit and regulations of the constitution against excessive targeted investigations by a politicized prosecution.”

However, he admitted that the ballot results didn’t match what was agreed upon by DP lawmakers during a general meeting last week.

The DP lawmaker claimed that in the meeting, the party agreed that while members could make their own decisions on the issue, the general consensus was to vote against the motion.

“We will take this opportunity to do our best to unify the party,” Park said.

Jung, the member of the DP’s supreme council, seemingly apologized on social media for the higher-than-expected number of dissident votes.

“I’m tearfully sorry and sorry,” Jung posted on Facebook. “Tomorrow’s sun will rise. Lee Jae-myung will not die.”

Even though Lee avoided Monday’s arrest warrant motion, he still faces several legal battles, including a trial that kicks off later this week.

On Friday, Lee must appear in court as a defendant for alleged election law violations.

He has two more court appearances in March alone.

Friday’s case revolves around a comment that Lee made during his campaign for presidency in 2021, when he claimed he did not know Seongnam Development Corp. official Kim Moon-ki.

Lee argued that while Kim worked for a development company owned by the city he was mayor of, he didn’t know each and every lower-level employee.

Kim reportedly played a key role in the controversial Daejang-dong development scheme in which Lee is implicated. Kim committed suicide in December 2021 when the investigation into the Daejang-dong case started.

The bereaved family has argued that Lee clearly knew Kim as they even rode together in the same golf cart when playing golf in Australia during a business trip.

The family also told the JoongAng Ilbo that an unnamed official from Lee’s presidential campaign made a phone call in which he said that the DP leader admitted to knowing Kim, though he also said he’d “blanked out” from an unexpected question.

The phone call was reported to have been made in February 2022, a month before the presidential election and just before the family held a press conference on Feb. 24.

Lee is also accused of falsely claiming President Park Geun-hye’s government put pressure on him regarding another development project.

The Land Ministry has denied his accusation.

A lawmaker is stripped of his position if he or she receives a fine of 1 million won or more or is sentenced to prison.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]