Ruling Party's Internal Audit Committee Recommends 'General Election Cutoff' for 46 of 204 Party Branch Chiefs

The People Power Party's Party Affairs Audit Committee has decided to recommend a cutoff (exclusion from nomination) for the bottom 22.5% in the party affairs audit for next year's general election.

On the 27th, the Party Affairs Audit Committee held a meeting at the central party office in Yeouido, Seoul, and made this decision, Party Affairs Audit Committee Chairman Shin Euijin announced in a briefing. Among the 253 local party committees nationwide, excluding emergency local committees, 204 were audited, and 46 local party committee heads, accounting for 22.5%, were evaluated as having issues in their local party activities.

The Party Affairs Audit Committee plans to report these findings to the party's Supreme Council as early as the 30th and will also report to the soon-to-be-established Party Nomination Management Committee. Chairman Shin said, "In addition to the 46 lower-ranking local committees, for incumbent lawmakers, when comparing public opinion poll results and party support ratings, if an individual's support rating is significantly lower, we decided to recommend to the Nomination Committee that this be considered a problem."

He explained, "We have not fully determined the exact threshold for the difference between party support ratings and individual support ratings that would constitute a problem," adding, "Even if the public opinion poll scores are poor, if the local party activity scores are good, they may be excluded from the recommendation." He further stated, "Competitiveness is extremely important in the general election, so if an individual's support rating is significantly low, we plan to convey this for consideration to the Nomination Committee."

Regarding whether this means the exclusion of the bottom 46 from nomination, Chairman Shin emphasized, "Whether to uniformly exclude the 46 local committees recommended as problematic or to re-investigate will be decided by the Nomination Committee."

However, specific statistics such as the ranking of the party affairs audit evaluation or the ratio of first-term and senior members will not be disclosed. The Party Affairs Audit Committee conducted a regular party affairs audit over four months starting in August this year. The final results reflected quantitative and qualitative evaluations through on-site audits and internal public opinion survey results.

The Nomination Committee is expected to use the party affairs audit results as a basis for 'mul-gari'?the replacement of incumbent lawmakers?in the nomination screening process.