Democratic Party's Geum Tae-seop Loses Primary... Lee Kwang-jae and Hwang Un-ha Advance to Main Election

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Geum Tae-seop, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, lost in the Seoul Gangseo-gap primary for the April 15 general election. Lee Kwang-jae, former governor of Gangwon and known as 'Roh Moo-hyun's right-hand man,' passed the primary, and Hwang Un-ha, former chief of the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency who is suspected of involvement in the Ulsan mayoral election interference case, was also confirmed as a candidate.

The Democratic Party's Election Commission announced the results of the seventh round of primaries held in 11 districts, including these outcomes, on the afternoon of the 12th.

Geum lost to Kang Seon-woo, a former professor at South Dakota State University, and thus failed to advance to the main election. Geum drew attention for his principled stance, criticizing former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk during the 'Cho Kuk incident' and abstaining from voting on the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials Act, but he was also criticized by party supporters and insiders for not following the party line.

In fact, former lawmaker Jeong Bong-ju and lawyer Kim Nam-guk, author of the 'Cho Kuk White Paper,' applied for nomination in Gangseo-gap to challenge Geum. Although the Democratic Party leadership excluded Jeong from the nomination and assigned Kim to Ansan Danwon in Gyeonggi Province, it seemed Geum would get another chance, but he ultimately failed to overcome opposition from party supporters in the primary and was eliminated from the main election.

Lee, who returned to politics after nine years, secured his place in the main election by defeating former lawmaker Park Woo-soon in Wonju-gap, Gangwon Province. He had been deprived of his eligibility to run for office for 10 years after receiving a suspended sentence for illegal political fund acceptance but was reinstated by a special presidential pardon at the end of last year.

Hwang, suspected of involvement in the Blue House's interference in the Ulsan mayoral election, won the primary in Jung-gu, Daejeon, defeating two competitors: former regional chairman Song Haeng-su and former Blue House administrator Jeon Byeong-deok, securing his ticket to the main election.

In Seoul Songpa-gap, former presidential policy planning committee member Cho Jae-hee defeated former 1st Vice Minister of Science and ICT Moon Mi-ok to win the nomination, and in Gyeonggi Yongin-gap, Oh Se-young, vice chairman of the party's Policy Committee, defeated former Gyeonggi Peace Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young to advance to the main election.

In Busan Jung-gu and Yeongdo, Kim Bi-o, a special committee member for public communication at the Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development, survived a three-person primary against lawyer Kim Yong-won and former party Policy Committee vice chairman Park Young-mi to be confirmed as the general election candidate.

Additionally, nominations were confirmed in ▲Busan Geumjeong-gu (Kim Kyung-ji) ▲Daejeon Daedeok-gu (Park Young-soon) ▲Gyeonggi Anseong-si (Lee Kyu-min) ▲Chungnam Cheonan-gap (Moon Jin-seok) ▲Cheonan-byeong (Lee Jeong-moon) and other districts.

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