Democratic Party to Hold National Convention for Party Leader Election on August 2

Nationwide Primaries Begin in Mid-July
Jung Chungrae Announces Candidacy... Park Chan-dae Also Mentioned as Party Leadership Contender

The Democratic Party of Korea has decided to hold its national convention to elect a new party leader on August 2.

On this day, the party held the first meeting of the National Convention Preparatory Committee at the National Assembly and decided to hold the "2nd Extraordinary National Party Members' Convention" on August 2 to elect the successor to President Lee Jaemyung as party leader and the successor to Prime Minister nominee Kim Minseok as Supreme Council member.

Candidate registration for the party leader position will take place on July 10. If there are three or more candidates, a preliminary primary will be held on July 15. Regional primaries will then be conducted as follows: Chungcheong on July 19, Yeongnam on July 20, Honam on July 26, the Seoul metropolitan area (Gyeonggi and Incheon) on July 27, and Seoul, Gangwon, and Jeju on August 2.

The party decided that the electoral college will reflect 15% from delegates, 55% from dues-paying party members, and 30% from public opinion polls. The public opinion poll will be conducted by two polling agencies using safe numbers.

Park Ji-hye, the spokesperson for the Preparatory Committee, explained, "In line with the era of party member sovereignty, we have been determining the electoral college ratio according to the party platform since last year, with the intention of more clearly reflecting the value of votes from delegates and dues-paying members."

She added, "If there are three or more candidates and no one receives a majority in the first round of online voting, a runoff vote between the top two candidates, excluding the third-place candidate, will be held if necessary."

The term of office for the newly elected party leader and Supreme Council member will last until August next year, which is the remainder of the terms of former party leader Lee and Supreme Council member Kim.

Meanwhile, four-term lawmaker Jung Chungrae has declared his candidacy for party leader. Former floor leader Park Chan-dae is also being mentioned as a strong contender for party leadership.

Yonhap News Agency