TK Achieved 55% Turnover but Faces Major Setback with Mass Independent Candidacies

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Park Cheol-eung and Lee Ji-eun] With the April 15 general election just over a month away, the ruling and opposition parties are rushing to finalize their candidate nominations. For the United Future Party, the main issue was the reshuffling in the Yeongnam region, considered their stronghold, and many evaluations suggest that the reshuffle was carried out on a larger scale than expected. However, both parties face the challenge of minimizing the backlash, such as independent candidacies.

The United Future Party is conducting a more extensive reshuffle than expected in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk (TK) region, where pro-Park Geun-hye lawmakers and core supporters are concentrated, who were the main culprits in past nomination controversies. Among the 14 lawmakers cut off from their constituencies, two-thirds belong to the pro-Park faction. In the TK region, the proportion of incumbent reshuffling reaches 55%. Although it falls short of the initial goal (60%), the party succeeded in reshuffling more than half of the incumbents along with the Busan-Gyeongnam (PK) region.

According to the United Future Party's nomination results released by the 9th, nine pro-Park lawmakers, including Yoon Sang-hyun, Min Kyung-wook, Lee Hyun-jae, Park Myung-jae, Jung Tae-ok, Baek Seung-joo, Kim Seok-ki, Yoo Jae-joong, and Lee Ju-young, were cut off from their constituencies. This accounts for 64% of all constituency cutoffs.

Lawmaker Yoon was a key figure in the so-called 'Jinbak' nomination controversy in the past, and Lawmaker Min was a former Blue House spokesperson under the Park Geun-hye administration, regarded as a representative pro-Park senior lawmaker. Also, Kim Jae-won, the United Future Party's Policy Committee Chair, considered a pro-Park power broker, was cut off in TK and will compete in a primary in Seoul Jungnang District.

Along with them, senior pro-Park lawmakers such as Jung Gap-yoon, Won Yoo-chul, and Yoo Ki-joon declared they would not run after the nomination committee was formed.

The nomination committee also finalized the TK nominations on the 7th and 8th, known as 'Bloody Friday.' Six incumbent lawmakers in TK were reshuffled, and including five who initially declared they would not run, a total of 11 incumbents were replaced. At the time of the first announcement, the replacement rate rose to 61%, but it dropped to 55% after Kim's primary in Jungnang. In PK, including proportional representatives, four incumbent lawmakers were cut off, resulting in a reshuffle of 54% of the 26 incumbents, including those who declared they would not run.

Although the United Future Party has carried out a relatively bold reshuffle, the backlash is considerable. If a large number of independent candidacies materialize, it could act as a decisive adverse factor by splitting votes.

Former Liberty Korea Party leader Hong Joon-pyo is scheduled to hold a press conference on the afternoon of the 9th at his election office in Yangsan, Gyeongnam, to officially announce his position. He is reportedly considering running not only in Gyeongnam Yangsan-eul, where he was cut off from the nomination, and his hometowns of Miryang, Uiryeong, Haman, and Changnyeong, but also some areas in Daegu. His remarks on Facebook that day support this. He said, "The thug-like nominations carried out in collaboration between Representative Hwang Kyo-ahn and Nomination Committee Chair Kim Hyung-oh are evident not only in my case but also in the Daegu nominations." This extreme language directed at the party leadership he belongs to is also proof of his great anger.

Former Gyeongnam Governor Kim Tae-ho already stated on the 8th, "The nomination committee made a really bad decision," and added, "I never imagined running as an independent... I plan to leave the party temporarily." He will run as an independent in his hometowns of Sancheong, Hamyang, Geochang, and Hapcheon in Gyeongnam. The possibility of an independent election alliance among prominent politicians in the Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam (PK) region cannot be ruled out.

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