The Democratic Party Struggles with Lack of Exciting Cards for Busan By-Election

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] While the mood is heating up with the ruling People Power Party's leading candidates consecutively declaring their candidacy for the Busan mayoral by-election, the Democratic Party of Korea is struggling with a shortage of candidates, deepening their concerns.

According to political circles on the 22nd, following the announcement by People Power Party lawmaker Seo Byung-soo the previous day that he would not run in the Busan mayoral by-election, the race appears to be consolidating into a two-horse race between former National Assembly Secretary-General Park Hyung-joon and former lawmaker Lee Eon-ju. Including these candidates, eight people from the party have registered as preliminary candidates, intensifying the competition.

The Democratic Party can only feel anxious watching this. The shortage of candidates is so severe that not a single person has declared their candidacy yet. For now, Kim Young-choon, the National Assembly Secretary-General, is mentioned as a leading candidate. He has declared his candidacy on the condition that the Democratic Party passes the special law for the Gadeokdo New Airport within the temporary session of the National Assembly. However, many analyses suggest that having only Secretary-General Kim is insufficient to generate excitement in the primary election.

Kim Young-chun, Member of the Democratic Party of Korea./Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

In the case of the Seoul mayoral by-election, the outlook is bright with a 'big match' featuring former Minister of SMEs and Startups Park Young-sun, lawmaker Park Joo-min, and lawmaker Woo Sang-ho being mentioned, but in Busan, there are not many heavyweight candidates besides Secretary-General Kim, making the situation uncertain.

The competitiveness of candidates compared to the opposing party is also an issue. In an Asia Economy opinion poll, both former Secretary-General Park and former lawmaker Lee from the People Power Party showed an advantage over Secretary-General Kim. Former Secretary-General Park received 45.8% in a head-to-head match against Secretary-General Kim, who received 30.3%, leading by a margin of 15.5 percentage points. In the one-on-one race between former lawmaker Lee and Secretary-General Kim, Lee led with 39.4% over Kim's 37.4%, within the margin of error.

The continuously declining approval ratings in the Busan area add to the Democratic Party's concerns. Although they initially gained momentum by strongly pushing for the Gadeokdo New Airport project, they have been unable to find a driving force to maintain their approval ratings. In the Realmeter survey of Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam, the Democratic Party has been trailing the People Power Party for five consecutive weeks since the second week of November.

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