The Third Zone Shrinks Proportional Seats Amid the Surge of Joguk Innovation Party

Reform New Party and Saeroun Mirae Each Expected to Secure Maximum of 3 Seats
Reform New Party Faces Difficulties in Finalizing Candidate Order

The support rates for the third zone parties, Lee Jun-seok and Lee Nak-yeon's new parties, have been stagnating for a long time. Initially, they aimed for support rates in the 10% range and planned to secure more than 5 proportional representation seats, but as of now, nearly half of the expected seats have been reduced.

In the regular opinion poll released by Media Tomato on the same day, in response to the question "If the election were tomorrow, which party would you vote for in the proportional representation vote?", Gaehyeok Shindang (Reform New Party) received 5.5%, and Saeroun Mirae (New Future) received 4.2%, still failing to break out of single-digit support rates.

For Gaehyeok Shindang and Saeroun Mirae, the maximum expected proportional representation seats are three. In this case, the second position on each party's proportional list is considered safe. For Saeroun Mirae, Yang So-young, former chairperson of the Democratic Party's National University Student Committee, who holds the first proportional spot, and Jo Jung-mook, the inaugural Fire Agency chief holding the second spot, are likely to enter the National Assembly. The third candidate, Joo Chan-mi, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Republic of Korea Army reserves, will see varying fortunes depending on the actual election support results.

Reform New Party Withdrawal of Merger
(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporters Han Sang-gyun, Shin Jun-hee = Lee Nak-yeon, co-representative of the Reform New Party, declared the withdrawal of the merger on the 20th.
On the left is co-representative Lee Nak-yeon holding a press conference to withdraw the merger at the New Future Party headquarters in Yeouido on the same day, and on the right is co-representative Lee Jun-seok holding a press conference at the National Assembly one hour later. 2024.2.20
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The situation is similar for Gaehyeok Shindang. The maximum expected proportional seats are estimated to be around four at most. Gaehyeok Shindang has not announced its proportional list order as of this day. It is known within the party that confirming the proportional list order is difficult due to lower-than-expected support rates. The party leadership is deeply concerned about selecting front positions that can realistically win seats, as many have applied for proportional representation. A political insider said, "The non-affiliated voters and Democratic Party supporters are shifting to the Joguk Shindang (Jo Guk New Party) instead of Saeroun Mirae or Gaehyeok Shindang," adding, "It seems unlikely that the current situation will change significantly."