People Power Party 2nd Cutoff, Fierce '4th Place Battle' More Intense Than 1st Place

June 6-7, Party Member Voting and Polls Conducted
Five Compete for 4th Place Ticket

Yoo Seung-min of the People Power Party (front row, from left counterclockwise), Ha Tae-kyung, Ahn Sang-soo, Choi Jae-hyung, Yoon Seok-youl, Hong Joon-pyo, Won Hee-ryong, and Hwang Kyo-ahn, presidential primary candidates, are preparing for the 6th broadcast debate on the afternoon of the 5th at the Korean Broadcasting System studio in Yeouido, Seoul. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Bo-ryeong] The biggest point of interest in the second cut-off results of the People Power Party's presidential primary, announced on the 8th, is who will secure the '4th place' position. The People Power Party is conducting opinion polls and party member voting over two days starting from the 6th to narrow down the current eight candidates to four. With candidates Yoon Seok-yeol, Hong Joon-pyo, and Yoo Seung-min virtually confirmed to take the 1st to 3rd places, only one among the five candidates Won Hee-ryong, Choi Jae-hyung, Ha Tae-kyung, Hwang Kyo-ahn, and Ahn Sang-soo can survive.

The second cut-off will be conducted with 30% party member voting and 70% opinion polling. In the first cut-off, the party member voting accounted for 20%, but this ratio has increased by 10 percentage points. This means that 'party sentiment' could act as a variable. Also, while only some responsible party members were sampled in the first cut-off, this time all responsible party members can participate in mobile and ARS (automatic response system) voting. There is also an analysis that it has become difficult to predict the results due to the approximately 230,000 new responsible party members added from May 31 to the 27th of last month, around the time of Lee Jun-seok's inauguration as party leader.

To capture the party sentiment in the final moments, presidential candidates will also attend the party leadership's press conference on the afternoon of the 6th, calling for a special prosecutor investigation into the Lee Jae-myung Daejang-dong Gate scandal. Former Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong emphasized his preparedness by stating on Facebook, "I have rich experience as a three-term National Assembly member and a two-term metropolitan governor." Former Board of Audit and Inspection Chairman Choi Jae-hyung, who was eliminated in the first cut-off, joined forces with former candidate Jang Ki-pyo to hold a 'Lee Jae-myung Resignation Demand Rally' in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. Former Future United Party (the predecessor of the People Power Party) leader Hwang Kyo-ahn targeted the hardline conservative base by operating an election fraud reporting center starting that day, while Representative Ha Tae-kyung adopted a strategy to assert his presence as a 'Hong Joon-pyo sniper' during the 6th TV debate the previous day, engaging in the competition to survive in 4th place.

While a smooth passage through the cut-off is expected, the battle for 1st place between former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol and Representative Hong Joon-pyo is also a point of interest. The two candidates are swapping 1st and 2nd places within the margin of error, making it difficult to predict which way the party sentiment will lean. Especially since in the main primary scheduled for November 5, the party member voting ratio will rise to 50%, making this result even more important. Representative Hong said on CBS radio that "In fact, 1st or 2nd place doesn't mean much this time," adding, "You only need to look at the 30% party member voting tendency."

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