People Power Party Launches from 'Party Primary'... Kim "Will Mobilize All Party Forces to Win"

'Independent Citizen Candidates' Draw the Line for Now... Starting with Party Primary Rules

Kim Jong-in, the Emergency Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, and Joo Ho-young, the floor leader, are attending the party members' meeting held at the National Assembly on the 6th and are participating in the national ceremony. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] The People Power Party is gearing up for the party's primary ahead of next year's by-elections for the Seoul and Busan mayoral offices. Although there were suggestions to field 'independent citizen candidates' as a way to present competitive candidates, the party leadership has drawn a line for now. The People Power Party will soon finalize the primary rules for candidates within the party. Since opposition party alliances have not yet been concretized, the plan is to focus attention primarily on the party's internal primary.

The By-election Primary Preparation Committee is expected to announce the primary rules as early as the 16th. Committee member Han Kyungjun said on the 6th, "We plan to make a concise decision during two meetings next week, reflecting opinions gathered at today's Seoul citizen public hearing," adding, "The ratio of party member votes to general citizen votes is likely to be finalized at the last moment."

The primary rules have roughly taken shape. Although there were internal calls to hold a 'complete national primary' with 100% citizen participation in the primary, this was ultimately excluded. At a meeting the day before, the committee decided to select the final candidate based on party member votes, general citizen opinion polls, and evaluations by a citizen evaluation panel. Emergency Response Committee Chairman Kim Jongin and Floor Leader Joo Ho-young have also expressed the view that "it is difficult to completely exclude responsible party members."

However, the existing ratio of '50% party member votes and 50% national opinion polls' will be adjusted to significantly increase the reflection of general citizens' votes. Regarding this, Floor Leader Joo predicted that the citizen participation ratio would be around 80-90%. There were also suggestions to apply different party member vote ratios for Seoul and Busan considering political inclination characteristics, but it seems the same ratio will be applied uniformly.

A conclusion will also be reached on the contentious issue of 'incumbent lawmakers running.' While there has been debate within the committee about the appropriateness of incumbent lawmakers running, it is known that rather than a definitive conclusion, a recommendation approach is likely to be taken. There has been no discussion at all about a stepwise primary for opposition party unification. Once the primary rules are finalized, candidates within the party for the by-elections are expected to officially declare their candidacies one after another.

Discussions about expanding the candidate base outside the party, such as opposition candidate unification and independent citizen candidates, are expected to vary depending on the progress of opposition party alliances. A party official said, "Related discussions are expected to take place at the nomination management committee to be launched around early next month," but added, "Since this is a very sensitive issue, there will likely be some difficulties."

Meanwhile, Chairman Kim expressed his determination to mobilize all party forces to lead the Seoul mayoral election to victory, encouraging attention to social polarization and real estate issues at the party meeting held that day.

He emphasized, "In the 2002 presidential election, when everyone believed victory was certain, if we analyze coldly why we lost, it is because we completely ignored the process of polarization and only talked about so-called vested interests, especially affection for large corporations," adding, "We need to think about how we are responding to the increasingly serious polarization phenomenon recently."

Chairman Kim criticized the government's real estate policy direction that uses taxes as a policy tool, saying, "This point will be most prominently highlighted in next year's Seoul mayoral election," and added, "Seoul is where the largest number of socially vulnerable people live. Since we promised to walk with the weak, please pay a lot of attention to this point."

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