Jo Jeonghun to Join Democratic Party and Open Democratic Party's Seoul Mayor Unification... "Only Polls, No Public Participation Primaries"

Jung Joon-hoon, Candidate for Seoul Mayor from the Transition Era Party. / Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Jo Jeonghun, a member of the Transition Era party running for the Seoul mayoral by-election, declared on the 24th that he would participate in the three-way unification negotiations for the Seoul mayoral candidate with the Democratic Party and the Open Democratic Party. However, he expressed a negative stance on the primary election method conducted by the Democratic Party.

Jo held a press conference at the National Assembly in the afternoon and stated, “Transition Era has decided to participate in the three-party Seoul mayoral candidate unification negotiations together with the Democratic Party and the Open Democratic Party.”

Regarding the primary election method, he said, “I believe the election alliance negotiation process should not follow a mechanical and engineering-like unification formula,” and criticized, “The unification method based on multi-stage competitive dominance opinion polls and the highly unrealistic public participation method cannot gain citizens’ support.”

He added, “As an alternative, a policy competition platform should be created where citizens directly evaluate each party candidate’s pledges and assess the vision of what kind of Seoul will be built by combining the candidates’ pledges,” emphasizing, “For the election to produce competent administrators, Transition Era will actively raise its voice in the upcoming election alliance with the Democratic Party and the Open Democratic Party.”

After the press conference, Jo explained to reporters about the unification proposal, “We officially received a proposal from the Democratic Party yesterday (the 23rd), and through the Transition Era Standing Representatives Meeting, we decided to participate in the unification negotiations and notified the Democratic Party.”

Regarding the shift from maintaining an independent path to unification, he explained, “I thought this election is a shameful election and should not become an election for some politicians,” and “Through the process of continuing policy discussions with various candidates, a consensus was formed to make this election a platform for policy vision competition with the candidates from the two parties.”

On the possibility that the primary election rules could become a source of conflict in the unification practical negotiations, he responded, “I think if the negotiation breaks down due to wrong rules, it means they didn’t want to do it from the beginning. Transition Era plans to approach the primary election rules flexibly so that it can be a competition platform where policies are presented to the citizens.”