[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Cho Hyung-joo] Choi Young-tae, former dean of the College of Humanities at Chonnam National University, has announced his decision to withdraw from the Gwangju Metropolitan City Superintendent of Education election.
On the afternoon of the 18th, Choi posted on his SNS, "I would like to express my gratitude and apologies to everyone who cared for me and encouraged and supported me," adding, "I will stop campaigning."
He continued, "The reason I dared to run for the superintendent of education was my hope to make Gwangju the best educational city in the country, but at some point, I began to realize that it was an overwhelming goal," and stated, "I felt that the superintendent election was too big a race for me to handle."
He also explained the reasons for not running, saying, "Many around me advised that to run in a major election like the superintendent's, I would need to boldly transform from an educator to a politician, but the transformation was not as easy as words," and "Recently, even those who had been involved in politics entered the superintendent election, which unsettled me further, and several public opinion polls were not favorable."
Choi had officially declared his candidacy on December 16 of last year, becoming the first among the Gwangju superintendent candidates to do so.
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