Lee Nak-yeon "Looking Forward to a Gentlemanly Competition with Hwang Kyo-ahn"... Will the 'Former Prime Minister vs. Former Prime Minister' Showdown Happen?

Former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon and Hwang Kyo-ahn, leader of the Liberty Korea Party.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-Young Hwang] "Speaking from my personal feelings, I have the expectation to engage in a gentlemanly competition once."

Former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon made this remark on the 23rd as he officially accepted the proposal from Lee Hae-chan, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, to run in Jongno, Seoul, regarding the possibility of a 'Jongno big match' against Hwang Kyo-ahn, leader of the Liberty Korea Party.

Former Prime Minister Lee said, "It is a great honor to be able to engage in politics in Jongno, the 'Number One Place in the Republic of Korea,' where our history and spirit are condensed and breathe."

If Leader Hwang runs in Jongno, it will be the first time in constitutional history that two former prime ministers face off in a general election.

Leader Hwang, who was the 44th Prime Minister and also served as Acting President during the Park Geun-hye administration, and former Prime Minister Lee, the 45th Prime Minister and the first prime minister of the Moon Jae-in administration, will compete.

In various opinion polls, if these two former prime ministers, who are leading as the first and second candidates for the next presidential election, clash in Jongno, the 'political number one district,' it is expected to be a 'preview of the presidential election.'

According to a survey conducted by Gallup Korea from the 14th to the 16th among 1,000 people nationwide aged 18 and over on preference for the next political leader (95% confidence level with a sampling error of ±3.1 percentage points), former Prime Minister Lee recorded 24% support, ranking first, while Leader Hwang was second with 9%.

The general election results in Jongno, which produced former presidents Yun Bo-seon, Lee Myung-bak, and Roh Moo-hyun, show a contrast before and after the 19th general election in 2012.

From the 13th to the 18th general elections, starting when the single-member district system was implemented and Jongno became a single electoral district, candidates Lee Jong-chan (13th-14th), Lee Myung-bak (15th), Jung In-bong (16th), and Park Jin (17th-18th) were elected under the banners of the Democratic Justice Party and Democratic Liberal Party (Lee Jong-chan) and the Grand National Party (Jung In-bong, Park Jin).

During this period, the only time a Democratic Party-affiliated candidate won was when Roh Moo-hyun won the July 1998 by-election after Lee Myung-bak resigned voluntarily amid charges of election law violations.

Since the 19th general election in 2012, when Democratic United Party member Chung Sye-kyun defeated Saenuri Party member Hong Sa-deok, Democratic Party-affiliated parties have continued to win consecutive elections in Jongno.

In the 18th presidential election in 2012, when Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri Party won, Moon Jae-in received 52,747 votes in Jongno, while Park Geun-hye received only 49,422 votes.

Both the incumbent National Assembly member (Chung Sye-kyun) and the district mayor (Kim Young-jong) are members of the Democratic Party.

Leader Hwang, who stated he would run in a difficult district in the metropolitan area, has avoided giving a direct answer about running in Jongno, saying, "I will judge from the perspective of what will be most helpful to the party."

Within the Liberty Korea Party, there are calls for Leader Hwang to run in Jongno. Lee Seok-yeon, former head of the Legislation Office and appointed as a Liberty Korea Party nomination committee member, recently stated in a media interview, "The first strategic nomination must be Leader Hwang's candidacy in Jongno."

However, Kim Hyung-oh, chairman of the Liberty Korea Party nomination committee, expressed a reserved stance in a media interview regarding Leader Hwang's candidacy in Jongno, saying, "Ask him directly," and added, "(The decision on Leader Hwang's candidacy) is one of the tasks to discuss with the nomination committee members. It must be done very strategically."

If the showdown between the former prime ministers materializes, the winner is expected to gain momentum on the path to the presidential election, but the loser is likely to suffer a fatal blow.

In the past 10 years, prominent politicians such as Hong Sa-deok, Oh Se-hoon, and Sohn Hak-kyu have faced hardships after running in Jongno and losing.

Hong Sa-deok, who lost to Chung Sye-kyun in the 19th general election, subsequently retired from politics, while Oh Se-hoon, who also lost to Chung in the 20th general election, was pushed out of the presidential candidate group and is now attempting a political comeback by moving his constituency to Gwangjin-eul.

Sohn Hak-kyu, who lost to Park Jin in the 18th general election in 2008, resigned as leader of the United Democratic Party in July of the same year and withdrew to Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.