Seoul City Councilor Kim In-ho Complains, "If Assemblyman Min Byung-doo Is Cut Off, Dongdaemun Has No Hope"

Seoul City Councilor Kim In-ho explains party members' stance on Min Byung-doo's cut-off on his Facebook... The Democratic Party announces cut-off of 3-term Min Byung-doo and plans youth strategic nomination, causing local residents' backlash... Yang Hee-woong, a party member, creates and collects signatures for a petition against Min Byung-doo's exclusion from Dongdaemun-eul district nomination

Democratic Party members from Dongdaemun are visiting the central party office to demand the withdrawal of the strategic nomination and to call for a primary election for Assemblyman Min Byung-doo.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] "Now I am afraid to answer the phone. The words of the residents and party members who support our Democratic Party of Korea are consistent. The story is this: 'Hey~ Congressman Kim! From now on, the Democratic Party will not exist in Dongdaemun-eul for 30 years.'

Kim In-ho, Seoul City Councilor (three-term representative of Dongdaemun-eul, former vice-chairman of the Seoul City Council), posted this on his Facebook on the morning of the 8th.

Councilor Kim said, "This is what I have heard and the calls I have received in recent days," and asked, "Why are the local residents and party members who support our party like this?"

It turns out that Dongdaemun-eul has been a district where a Democratic Party member of the National Assembly has never been elected for 32 years. This difficult area was voluntarily taken on by Congressman Min Byung-doo, who pioneered the thorny path and turned it into fertile land.

Councilor Kim lamented, "Again, for 32 years, this fertile land will become a gravel field, a thorny path."

The Democratic Party of Korea announced that it would cut off Congressman Min Byung-doo (three-term) and nominate a youth strategy candidate, which caused backlash from local residents.

Accordingly, Congressman Min requested a reconsideration from the central party, while party member Yang Hee-woong is creating a petition titled 'Petition against the exclusion of Congressman Min Byung-doo from the nomination in Dongdaemun-eul' and collecting signatures.

The petition states, "Dongdaemun-eul is traditionally a neighborhood with a strong conservative voter base. The residents tend to be older in age. After narrowly losing to Hong Jun-pyo, who was in long-term power 12 years ago, Congressman Min Byung-doo pushed out Hong Jun-pyo four years later through relentless effort and planted the Democratic Party flag."

It also states, "Since then, he has done his best in local activities and was elected in the 2016 general election (19th National Assembly) with an impressive 58.16% of the vote. The current situation is even better. If Congressman Min Byung-doo runs, it is a district that will definitely win. The Me Too incident two years ago has not been confirmed as true, and I understand that explanations have been made. Also, there has been no disturbance in local public sentiment due to the incident."

Furthermore, it emphasizes that if a candidate who overwhelmingly leads in suitability surveys is cut off for incomprehensible reasons, the local party members and residents' sentiment will turn away.

It also argues that if Lee Hye-hoon, the candidate of the United Future Party, runs, the traditional support base will regroup, and the Democratic Party flag will be taken down.

Additionally, it mentions that it is still premature for a young politician to plant the flag.