People Power Party By-election Candidate to Be Selected Through 5 Debates and Votes... Primary Election Rules Confirmed

Preliminary Primary Reflects 100% Citizen Opinion... In Final, 80% Citizens · 20% Party Members
If Multiple Political Newcomers Run, One Automatically Advances to Final
Additional Points for Women to Be Recognized... Final Decision by Party Committee

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] The People Power Party has drafted a provisional rule for the primary elections for the Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections scheduled for April next year. The key features include increasing the proportion of citizen voting and expanding opportunities for debates. The People Power Party plans to finalize the primary election rules after going through the party caucus and the emergency response committee.

The People Power Party's Primary Election Preparation Committee held a marathon meeting for about three and a half hours starting at 11 a.m. on the 12th and concluded the primary election rules, deciding to hold a preliminary primary that reflects 100% of the general citizens' opinion polls.

The committee first decided to establish a citizen verification committee to pre-screen candidates for morality, socially inappropriate behavior, abuse of power, and conflicts of interest. Penalties will be imposed for baseless slander against other candidates that have not gone through the verification committee.

Subsequently, the preliminary primary will be conducted by conducting opinion polls among general citizens, reflecting 100% of the results to select candidates advancing to the final round (main primary). The final round will reflect 80% of general citizens' opinion polls and 20% of party member votes.

Candidates advancing to the final round will participate in a total of five debates: three one-on-one debates and two comprehensive joint debates broadcast on TV. Approximately 1,000 randomly selected citizen evaluators will assess each debate. Kim Sang-hoon, chairman of the preparation committee, explained, "We decided to announce the votes immediately after voting for the candidate judged to be excellent." This partially adopts the evaluation method of audition programs.

The committee agreed to grant automatic advancement to the final round for political newcomers with no prior experience running for public office. Chairman Kim explained, "If two or more newcomers run, those who rank within the top four will naturally advance to the final round, and even if they are outside the ranking, a newcomer track will be created."

The issue of additional points for women was left undecided and referred to the nomination management committee. Chairman Kim stated, "Many committee members expressed opinions in favor of granting additional points, so this opinion will be conveyed to the nomination committee as is," adding, "We think that more additional points should be given to women who are political newcomers, and for others, it should be applied differentially."

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