Open Democratic Party Recruits Consecutive 'Star-Level' Figures... Will Ruling Party's Proportional Vote Split?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] The proportional representation party 'Open Democratic Party,' created by Representative Sohn Hye-won and former Representative Jeong Bong-ju, is raising its presence by continuously recruiting star-level figures. Amid ongoing friction within the ruling party surrounding the proportional alliance party 'Together Citizens' Party,' led mainly by the Democratic Party, the proportional voting sentiment of Democratic Party supporters is increasingly likely to be divided.

According to the Open Democratic Party on the 19th, they plan to announce about 20 final proportional representation candidates on the 22nd and determine the order of proportional representatives through voter and party member voting on the 22nd and 23rd.

Looking at the known proportional representation candidate pool so far, Joo Jin-hyung, former CEO of Hanwha Investment & Securities, who became a star for his harsh criticism of conglomerates during the 'Choi Soon-sil state affairs manipulation' hearings, has declared his intention to run. Dr. Kim Jin-ae, an urban planning expert and former 18th National Assembly member, has also expressed her willingness to participate in the Open Democratic Party.

Additionally, Ahn Won-gu, former Daegu Regional Tax Office chief known for tracing former President Lee Myung-bak's assets, has applied for nomination, and Choi Kang-wook, former Secretary for Public Service Discipline who recently left the Blue House, is reportedly likely to join the Open Democratic Party. Other candidates include Hwang Hee-seok, former Director of Human Rights at the Ministry of Justice, and Hwang Myung-pil, member of the Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development.

Joo Jin-hyung, former CEO of Hanwha Investment & Securities / Photo by Asia Economy DB

The ability to assemble such famous figures owes much to the unique recommendation method called 'open casting.' The Open Democratic Party received three proportional representation candidate recommendations from 1,000 people. Among them, those who received a certain number of recommendations were individually contacted by Representative Sohn and others to explore their participation in the nomination.

The approval rating is also noteworthy. According to a public opinion poll conducted by Embrain Public on the 13th, commissioned by 'News1,' surveying 1,005 men and women nationwide aged 18 and over (response rate 24.0%, margin of error ±3.1 percentage points at 95% confidence level; detailed information available on the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website), the Open Democratic Party received a 6.5% approval rating. This is only 1 percentage point behind the Justice Party, which recorded 7.5%. At this level, securing six proportional seats is possible. After completing the nomination process and launching full-scale election campaigns, even higher approval ratings can be expected.

Attention is also focused on the Open Democratic Party's post-election trajectory. Initially, it was anticipated that after the general election, the party would merge with the Democratic Party or that members would individually join the Democratic Party. However, with rising approval ratings recently, the possibility of functioning as a negotiation group has been raised.

Yoo Si-min, director of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, stated on his YouTube channel 'Alileo,' "The party vote rate will definitely exceed 3%. If combined with the (proportional) alliance party, becoming a negotiation group seems easy," predicting that the Open Democratic Party will continue to play an independent role after the general election.

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