Democratic Party to Elect Park Hong-geun's Successor as Floor Leader in Primary on the 28th

The Democratic Party of Korea will hold the floor leader election on the 28th of this month to appoint the new floor leader who will lead the party in the National Assembly until next year's general election.

On the 17th, the Democratic Party held a meeting of the floor leader election management committee to finalize the schedule for the election campaign committee. After the meeting, Byeon Jae-il, chairman of the floor leader election management committee, told reporters, "Candidate registration will be accepted from the 18th to the 19th," adding, "The candidate will be elected by a majority vote."

Unlike the previous election, which allowed mobile voting due to the COVID-19 situation, this election will only allow voting by members present at the party meeting room.

For the floor leader election, candidates will give policy speeches and participate in debates hosted by the election management committee on the election day. However, other gatherings of members or candidate invitation debates will not be permitted.

Park Hong-geun, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is speaking at a party meeting held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 21st. The Democratic Party will discuss the issue of processing the arrest consent motion for Representative Lee following the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant at this party meeting. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Chairman Byeon said, "From the perspective of parliamentary countermeasures, the floor leader’s role is more important than ever as a party that appropriately points out the problems of policies pursued by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration and creates clear alternatives." He continued, "Our party needs to unite around a single axis, but due to the excessive prosecution investigations by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, factors causing division are being presented as external factors. It is a critical time when the floor leader, who must work rationally with the party leader on how to reconcile again, is desperately needed. It would be good if a rational floor leader who can gather the consensus of the members is elected."

Among the candidates for the Democratic Party floor leader are three-term lawmakers Park Kwang-on, Hong Ik-pyo, and Lee Won-wook, as well as two-term lawmaker Kim Doo-kwan.

According to the Democratic Party’s rules and regulations, the term of floor leader Park Hong-geun is until the second week of next month. However, considering that the ruling party has elected a new floor leader and that the new leadership term is expected to start from the May extraordinary session of the National Assembly, Park’s term has been shortened.