Yoo Eun-hye Demands Fairness: Can the Gyeonggi Education Election Overcome Controversy?

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Yoo Eun-hye, a candidate for Gyeonggi Provincial Superintendent of Education, sharply criticized the Gyeonggi Education Innovation Coalition’s handling of its unified primary on the 9th and demanded an apology and accountability for slanderous attacks originating from some campaigns.

At an emergency press conference in the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly briefing room, Yoo said, “A primary must expand voter participation and be administered transparently and fairly.” She added that any method that limits voter participation, undermines democratic principles, or applies rules opaquely and arbitrarily must be corrected.

Her criticism centered on the coalition’s polling method. Yoo argued that the coalition’s bylaws and candidate-selection rules require combining member votes with a provincewide resident poll; there is no provision allowing a poll that targets only a subset of residents.

Yoo accused the election committee of pushing a procedure never used in selecting progressive superintendents in Seoul or Gyeonggi, even to the point of violating the coalition’s own bylaws and rules. She said she would accept the primary rules but insisted that the administration of the process must be fair and transparent.

Yoo also expressed strong regret over promotional material circulated by a particular campaign, saying the leaflet omitted the fact that she ranked first in the overall poll and instead emphasized her support among conservative voters, thereby mischaracterizing her as a conservative candidate.

“I’m ahead among centrist voters, and when you combine progressives and centrists I’m among the front-runners,” Yoo said. “High conservative support indicates broad appeal. Presenting that with sensational imagery to paint me with partisan colors is unacceptable in a 21st-century superintendent election.”

She singled out candidate An Min-seok, saying, “As a five-term Democratic Party lawmaker, he knows how the democratic camp has suffered from color politics. I am not only embarrassed — I am ashamed — that he would resort to such anachronistic tactics,” and called for an immediate apology.

Yoo asked whether it can be called education or democracy when campaigns that cannot compete on policy instead use color-based attacks and stigmatizing imagery. She went on to ask rhetorically, “Where is democracy here? Where is progressivism? Where is education?”

She demanded that the coalition’s election committee take responsible action under its rules against the spread of false information and any acts that undermine a fair election, and pressed for measures that residents can accept to be implemented within the week.

“Gyeonggi education does not belong to any individual; it belongs to the residents,” Yoo said. “I will adhere to democratic principles and fair competition to the end, and together with the residents I will win openly and on principle.”

Suwon — Kim Dong-sung, reporter