Lee Hae-chan "Unite from now on... Early voting of 4050 is key"

Lee Hae-chan, former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, attended the celebration for the publication of his autobiography "My Life to the People" held on the 22nd at the Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, and expressed his gratitude. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] Former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, Lee Hae-chan, analyzed that the key factor is the early voting rate as the support base is consolidating from now on.

On the 1st, Lee appeared on TBS Radio's 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory' and said, "I cannot be certain of a comeback, but in my view, the consolidation is happening from now on," adding, "Tomorrow and the day after are early voting days, so it depends on how many people come out and what kind of people come out. Since the main voting day on Wednesday is not a holiday, how many office workers participate in early voting is an important point of interest."

On the same day, Lee also said on TBS Radio's 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory,' "Now is a very important time as each support group is consolidating," and added, "In the beginning, the gap was quite large, but recently it seems to be narrowing to within single digits."

'Who votes' refers to the age group. Lee said, "Our support base is strong mostly among people in their 40s and up to mid-50s. By seeing how much they participate, we can generally make a guess."

When host Kim Eo-jun mentioned, "Candidate Oh Se-hoon said, 'The essence of the Yongsan tragedy is the violent resistance of the tenants,'" Lee responded, "He is a person who has no affection for the citizens," and explained, "At the time of the Yongsan tragedy, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency deployed a special attack team, a unit trained at Namtaeryeong, so to speak, a counter-terrorism unit."

Regarding the nature of this election, Lee said, "To some extent, it has a character of judging the administration," adding, "The president's term now has only one year left. However, more importantly, it is about how to properly improve and protect the lives and livelihoods of the 10 million Seoul citizens. That is the essence. While there is some element of judging the administration, I don't think that is the main character."

On the diagnosis that losing the by-election would make the presidential election difficult, Lee said, "It doesn't mean the presidential election will be difficult, but rather that a slight obstacle arises in what could have been a smoother path. Moreover, the opposing party does not even have its own candidate," he said. He added, "If we win the Seoul mayoral election, it will be a smoother path to the presidential election, but if things go wrong, it can be seen as going down an unpaved road."

Meanwhile, host Kim Eo-jun said, "Because the People Power Party mostly refused planned interviews, we have only been able to invite candidates or officials from one party," and added, "We contacted former leader Hwang Kyo-ahn and former leader Lee Hae-chan, but former leader Hwang Kyo-ahn responded that he has no intention of giving an interview, so I would like to reiterate that we could only invite one side."

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