Election Committee Chairs Offer Candid Criticism After Defeat
"Party Must Embrace Differences for Reform" vs "No More Internal Division"
"We need to learn from the Democratic Party, which was free of any internal discord in order to secure their candidate's victory." (Floor Leader Kwon Seongdong) "The decisive reason we lost an election we could have won was the division within the conservative camp." (Co-Election Committee Chair Cho Kyungtae) "We must not allow a few individuals to control the party." (Co-Election Committee Chair Lee Junghyun)
On June 4, at the disbandment ceremony for the People Power Party's election committee held at the party's central headquarters in Yeouido, calls for party reform erupted. There were voices insisting that the cause of the election defeat should be sought internally and that the party must be reborn as a new conservative party.
On this day, presidential candidate Kim Moonsoo took responsibility for the election defeat and offered a deep bow to the election committee in lieu of a speech. However, he soon delivered harsh criticism toward the party. In particular, he directly targeted the party leadership for the turmoil over replacing the presidential candidate after the primary, stating, "Intra-party democracy has collapsed." Kim said, "Even a child could see that the way public office candidates were chosen made no sense," and added, "We need deep reflection on the fact that this is a party where democracy cannot breathe."
The co-chairs of the election committee also each addressed the need for party reform. Floor Leader Kwon said, "There may be many causes for this presidential election defeat, but the party must first restore its sense of community," and criticized, "We should be fighting our opponents, not each other. The appearance of internal conflict must absolutely disappear." He went on to say, "We should take a lesson from the Democratic Party, which had no internal discord in order to secure Lee Jaemyung's victory."
Calls for unity continued. Co-Election Committee Chair Joo Hoeyoung said, "Now we must reorganize and innovate the party to stop the monster government of Lee Jaemyung," and emphasized, "We must not quarrel and divide among ourselves. We need to start by stabilizing the leadership."
On the other hand, there were also strong demands to embrace differing voices within the party. Pro-Ahn faction co-chair Cho Kyungtae said, "If candidate Lee Junseok had not been expelled, we would not be facing such a difficult situation," and criticized, "It is extremely wrong to talk about democracy while refusing to acknowledge differences among ourselves." He continued, "For the People Power Party to be reborn, it must have the capacity to embrace those who think differently."
Co-chair Lee Junghyun also added his voice. He pointed out, "Our defeat in the election was due to internal issues," and stressed, "We must clearly recognize that the party does not belong to a few lawmakers and party officials." He also called for the creation of a joint leadership council that would reflect the voices of those outside the party. He said, "Many comrades are shedding tears of blood on the front lines, while others sit in the back offering commentary. We must not continue this style of politics."
Emergency Committee Chair Kim Yongtae said, "With a mindset of voluntarily dissolving ourselves, we must shed our old shell and start anew," and added, "Today's disbandment ceremony is a rallying cry to rebuild the collapsed conservative camp."
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