People Power Party's Nomination Committee Weighs '100% Public Poll' for Final Primary... Conscious of Ahn?

Candidate Registration Starts from the 18th... Preliminary Primary Contestants Announcement on the 28th

Jeong Jin-seok, Chairman of the People Power Party's Nomination Management Committee, is attending the 2nd meeting of the Nomination Management Committee for the April 7 by-election held at the National Assembly on the 5th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] The People Power Party is considering holding the party's main primary election for selecting candidates for the by-elections entirely through public opinion polls.

Jung Jin-seok, the People Power Party's By-election Nomination Management Committee Chair, told reporters after the second committee meeting on the 5th, "We had a heated debate over changing the rules for the preliminary and main primaries."

Previously, the People Power Party's Primary Preparation Committee proposed a primary rule reflecting 100% general public opinion polls in the preliminary primary, and 80% general public opinion polls with 20% party member votes in the main primary, which was reported to the Emergency Response Committee.

Conversely, the Nomination Management Committee is also considering a plan to reflect party members' intentions in the preliminary primary, but to reflect 100% general public opinion in the main primary. Regarding the background of this review, Chair Jung explained, "The political situation has changed somewhat since the Primary Preparation Committee, and there are factors that need to be considered more broadly from a political perspective."

This is being interpreted as a measure to encourage participation in the primary by external figures such as Ahn Cheol-soo, the leader of the People’s Party.

Additionally, the Nomination Management Committee has decided to grant additional points to women, political newcomers, persons with disabilities, and youth, a conclusion that the Primary Preparation Committee had not reached. However, the range and ratio of these additional points have not been determined.

The Nomination Management Committee plans to announce the primary from the 15th to the 17th, accept candidates from the 18th to the 21st, and then conduct document screening including candidate morality verification by the Citizens Verification Special Committee from the 22nd to the 27th, announcing the preliminary primary qualifiers on the 28th.

The Citizens Verification Special Committee is chaired by Assemblyman Jeong Jeom-sik, with members including lawyers Yoon Ki-chan and Kwon Oh-hyun, Lim Heon-jo, co-representative of the Pan-Civil Society Coalition, freelance announcer Park Bo-kyung, and accountant Kang Min-ji.

The Nomination Management Committee stated, "We also plan to prepare guidelines that specify the neutrality obligation of party-affiliated National Assembly members and party district committee chairs to achieve party unity during the primary process."

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