The Democratic Party to Announce Presidential Candidate Cutoff on the 11th... Stable Zone 5+α (1 Person) Sparks Three-Way Race Among Choi, Yang, and Kim

6 Out of 8 Selected in First Round
Lower Tier Candidates Choi Moon-soon, Yang Seung-jo, Kim Du-kwan
6 Survivors of First Round Cutoff to Begin Regional Primary Tours Next Month

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] The Democratic Party's presidential candidate cut-off (preliminary primary) results will be announced on the 11th. Out of 8 candidates, 6 will be selected in the first round. Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yeon, former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae, former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, and Representative Park Yong-jin have secured positions within the top 5 in various opinion polls, making their passage seem smooth. Among the lower-ranked three?Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon, Chungnam Province Governor Yang Seung-jo, and Representative Kim Du-kwan?only one is expected to pass the cut-off.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Democratic Party began a three-day cut-off opinion poll to select the presidential candidate starting from the 9th. It will run until 3 PM on the 11th, and at 5:30 PM on the same day, the combined results will be announced based on 50% general public and 50% party members, ranked by total votes, to determine the 6 candidates advancing to the main primary. The current trend points to a comfortable passage for the top 5 candidates. According to a survey conducted by Realmeter on behalf of OhmyNews from the 6th to 7th, targeting 1,006 adults, the top five were Lee Jae-myung (32.4%), Lee Nak-yeon (19.4%), Choo Mi-ae (7.6%), Chung Sye-kyun (6.0%), and Park Yong-jin (5.0%) (the margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, according to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website). Following them, Choi Moon-soon (1.8%), Yang Seung-jo (1.4%), and Kim Du-kwan (0.8%) showed somewhat lower support, hovering around 1%.

The six candidates advancing to the primary will tour the country for about a month starting from the 7th of next month, conducting regional sequential primaries. After the final sequential primary on September 5th, the votes received by the candidates will be combined to select the final presidential candidate. If no candidate secures a majority, a runoff vote between the top two candidates will be held on the 10th.

The competition among the three latecomers vying for the last ticket to the main election is also a point of interest. All three candidates, who are in the lower ranks of support, coincidentally come from metropolitan government leadership positions in Gangwon, Chungnam, and Gyeongnam, respectively, making it noteworthy how much they have consolidated votes in their regions.

Meanwhile, the eight Democratic Party presidential candidates have solidified the "Lee Jae-myung vs. anti-Lee Jae-myung" framework over the past week through four TV debates, a "National Interview," and a "Political Unpack Show." In this process, Lee Nak-yeon and Chung Sye-kyun have taken a joint offensive, while Lee Jae-myung and Choo Mi-ae have defended, suggesting that after the cut-off, focus will shift to the possibility of unification among these candidates. Some critics noted that although the primary process gained attention with controversies such as the National Interview panel scandal and party leader Song Young-gil's "Daekkaemun" remarks, it ultimately left only the "Lee Jae-myung pants" controversy rather than policy debates. Governor Choi expressed frustration in the last TV debate, saying, "I felt very empty seeing the policies I prepared overnight being swept away by a single comment from some candidates."

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