Lee Jae-myung 54.8%... First Primary Majority, Increased Likelihood of Direct Advancement to General Election

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] On the 4th, Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, surpassed the majority with 54.81% in Daejeon and Chungnam, the first regions to count votes in the Democratic Party's presidential primary.

Former Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yeon received only 27.41%, former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun got 7.84%, and former Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae received 6.67%. Representative Park Yong-jin earned 2.44%, and Representative Kim Doo-kwan got 0.84%.

The Daejeon and Chungnam electorate, mainly composed of party members with voting rights and delegates, numbers 52,820, which is not a large portion compared to the total electorate expected to exceed 2 million, including the general public and ordinary party members. However, since the first primary results showed a landslide victory for Lee, it is expected to influence the spread of the dominant narrative in upcoming regional primaries and online voting.

These vote counts combine results from online voting, automated response service (ARS), and some on-site voting conducted since the 31st of last month. The Democratic Party primary system aggregates votes until the 10th of next month, and if no candidate achieves a majority, a runoff between the top two candidates will be held. This is why attention was focused on whether Lee would secure a majority.

Lee engaged in a fierce battle with former leader Lee Nak-yeon, known as the so-called "Myeong-Nak Daejeon" contest. Recently, Lee Nak-yeon's camp fiercely attacked Lee Jae-myung's past pro bono legal work, but it appears to have had little impact on the initial voting results. There were also no signs of so-called "reverse voting," where those not supporting the Democratic Party participate in the electorate to check Lee.

The Democratic Party will announce the results of the Sejong and Chungbuk regional primaries on the 5th. Following that, the primaries will proceed through Daegu and Gyeongbuk (11th), Gangwon (12th), and conclude with the Seoul regional primary on the 10th of next month.

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