What Will Happen to Former Geumcheon-gu Mayor Cha Seong-su, Pro-Roh and Pro-Moon?

Former Geumcheon District Mayor Cha Seong-su, who served as the Blue House Senior Secretary for Civil Society under the Roh Moo-hyun administration and as Chairman of the Private School Pension Corporation under the Moon Jae-in government, ran as an independent in the general election, receiving 14% of the vote; he suffered financial losses, including only recovering 50% of the 179 million KRW election deposit, and is expected to be politically inactive in the region for at least four years, drawing attention.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Cha Seong-su, former district mayor of Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, who spent eight years from 2010 as the mayor after working as the chief of civil society under the Participatory Government while engaging in the local autonomy movement in Busan alongside President Roh Moo-hyun.

Even after finishing his term as district mayor, he served as the chairman of the Private School Teachers' Pension Corporation, receiving an annual salary of several hundred million won under the Moon Jae-in administration.

He is also one of the central figures of the pro-Roh and pro-Moon factions as a director of the Roh Foundation.

However, when the Democratic Party of Korea strategically nominated Chief Judge Choi Gi-sang in this general election without giving Cha a chance to compete in the primary, Cha ran as an independent, received 14% of the vote, and was defeated.

As a result, candidate Cha suffered an economic loss by receiving only 50% of the National Assembly election deposit refund (17.9 million won).

Besides this material damage, it is expected that Cha’s standing within the pro-Roh and pro-Moon groups will significantly decline, drawing attention.

From the beginning of his candidacy, there was considerable opposition in the region, with people saying, “Didn’t candidate Cha receive a strategic nomination (parachute nomination) when he ran for Geumcheon-gu mayor in the 5th local election? After serving two terms as mayor and being appointed chairman of the Private School Teachers' Pension Corporation with an annual salary of several hundred million won, hasn’t this administration benefited that much?”

However, in the end, he had no choice but to run as an independent, distancing himself from this administration.

In particular, there is precedent where Min Byung-doo, who lost the nomination and ran as an independent in Dongdaemun-eul, Seoul, supported the Democratic Party candidate Jang Kyung-tae in the middle of the election, so it seems unlikely that candidate Cha will play any significant role in the Democratic Party administration for the next four years.

J, a resident of Geumcheon-gu, predicted, “Running as an independent in Seoul without giving up until the end, and with Democratic Party candidate Choi Gi-sang winning by a landslide margin combining the votes of the United Future Party candidate and candidate Cha, it seems difficult for him to play any role in Geumcheon in the future.”

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