Progressive Unification Primary for Education Superintendent Election Descends into Mud-Slinging... 'Primary Manipulation' Leads to Unprecedented Police Investigation

The upcoming June 3 local elections are already mired in controversy, particularly concerning the unification primaries for the Seoul and Gyeonggi education superintendent posts. The process, intended to consolidate progressive candidates, has devolved into a public dispute, with two Seoul candidates, Han Man-jung and Kang Shin-man, taking the unprecedented step of filing a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. They allege that the '2026 Seoul Democratic Progressive Education Superintendent Unification Promotion Committee' engaged in fraudulent practices during the primary selection.

Their accusations center on claims of illegal activities and irregularities that they believe were orchestrated to ensure the victory of the incumbent, Chung Geun-sik. The two candidates assert that their supporters were systematically excluded from the voter rolls and that they were denied access to online voting links. Furthermore, they suspect that the committee's decision to conduct a sample survey of only 10% of the citizen participation group, rather than a full audit, allowed for the potential selection of a voter pool favorable to a particular candidate. Allegations also include being barred from observing the vote count and the suspicious deletion of the citizen participation database.

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There have been continuous illegal practices and signs of irregularities in the voting process. It is enough to suspect that it was an election manipulation planned to get a specific candidate elected.

This situation is not isolated to Seoul. In Gyeonggi Province, the unification process for the education superintendent candidate has also hit a snag. The Gyeonggi Education Innovation Alliance, which was supposed to select a unified candidate, has reported an allegation of 'electioneering group manipulation' against the chosen candidate, Ahn Min-seok. This has led to a separate police investigation. The recurring issues in these unification processes highlight a growing disillusionment with the current models, which rely on civil society organizations to manage candidate selection without party affiliation, a system designed to ensure educational neutrality. However, the lack of legal recourse for candidates who lose these primaries, unlike in party-based elections, often leads to disputes and independent candidacies, undermining the very purpose of unification.

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It is impossible to select only supporters of a specific candidate and exclude them, and the process of narrowing down the citizen participation group was sufficiently explained to the candidates.