Hong Jun-pyo Cutoff Strategy? United Party Adds Yangsan-eul for Additional Recruitment

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hye-min] On the 2nd, the United Future Party announced that it will accept additional candidate nominations for the Yangsan-eul electoral district in Gyeongnam. Yangsan-eul is the district where former Liberty Korea Party leader Hong Joon-pyo has expressed his intention to run, leading to interpretations that this move is essentially aimed at cutting off (excluding from nomination) former leader Hong.

The party's nomination committee stated on the same day, "We will accept additional candidate recommendation applications for the Gyeongnam Yangsan-si-eul district." The deadline for submission is 5 p.m. today.

Inside and outside the party, there are remarks that it is unusual for the nomination committee to issue an additional announcement targeting a single electoral district.

Previously, former leader Hong declared his candidacy for his hometown areas of Gyeongnam Miryang, Uiryeong, Haman, and Changnyeong, but when the nomination committee requested him to run in a tough district in the metropolitan area, he proposed a compromise to run in Yangsan-eul, considered a tough district in Busan and Gyeongnam (PK). Afterwards, he came up to Seoul and even attended an interview with the nomination committee. As the committee's decision was delayed, he took a last stand by setting up an election office in Yangsan.

However, with the nomination committee's decision to hold an additional recruitment for Yangsan-eul on this day, there is analysis that this is a step to cut off (exclude from nomination) former leader Hong. The additional recruitment is known to be considering former Yangsan Mayor Na Dong-yeon.

The nomination committee also accepted additional applications for Seoul Songpa-eul, where former MBC announcer Bae Hyun-jin, a close aide of former leader Hong, serves as the party branch chairperson, on the 28th of last month. Regarding the committee's unexpected decision, many speculations arose about the possibility of announcer Bae's exclusion from nomination and internal party 'pro-Hong faction suppression.'

At that time, former leader Hong criticized on his Facebook, "If the decision is made to exclude candidate Bae Hyun-jin from nomination, our party will truly lose a precious young talent who can win," adding, "Politics is truly frightening."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.