The People Power Party's Presidential Primary Felt Like a Drama... Yoon Seok-yeol is the 'Final Winner'

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] The long journey to select the People Power Party's presidential election candidate came to an end on the 5th. The presidential primary, which started with 15 candidates, concluded with the victory of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol.

The People Power Party launched its election management committee on August 26 and registered 15 preliminary candidates. On September 15, 8 candidates were selected through the first cut-off, and on the 8th of last month, the second cut-off narrowed the field to four candidates: Won Hee-ryong, Yoo Seung-min, Yoon Seok-yeol, and Hong Joon-pyo. The final selection combined 50% public opinion polls and 50% party member votes.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The primary was intense from the beginning. Due to disputes among candidates, Jeong Hong-won, chairman of the People Power Party's election management committee, offered to resign but later retracted his resignation. The main issue was the 'reverse selection prevention clause,' with some candidates questioning the neutrality of the election committee. Although the vote on introducing the reverse selection prevention clause resulted in 6 against and 6 for a compromise, thus failing, Chairman Jeong's intention to hold a re-vote sparked backlash, with accusations that it favored a specific candidate.

Debates among candidates were held a total of 16 times, combining preliminary and main primaries. Each debate featured heated exchanges. In the first debate, Representative Hong was criticized for his stance defending former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk. This was dubbed 'Cho Guk Su Hong,' with accusations that he was trying to appeal to Democratic Party supporters.

During the main primary, former Prosecutor General Yoon sparked controversy by writing the Chinese character for 'king' (王) on his palm. Furthermore, after the debate, it was revealed that Yoon had told former Representative Yoo to watch a video lecture on 'Jeongbeop' (correct law), which stirred further controversy. The lecturer explained that he met Yoon through Yoon's wife, Kim Geon-hee, during the investigation of the 'state manipulation' scandal.

Yoon's remark, "Except for May 18, Chun Doo-hwan did well in politics," caused a stir. At a visit to the People Power Party's Busan Haeundae-gu Gap party member council, Yoon appeared to defend former President Chun Doo-hwan. He was heavily criticized by both ruling and opposition parties and eventually apologized, but the apology itself sparked more controversy.

He posted and then deleted a photo from his first birthday party holding an apple, followed by posting a video on social media giving an apple to his pet dog, which escalated the issue. This led to the so-called 'dog apple' controversy, implying that he considered the public as dogs. The reflection of his wife Kim Geon-hee in the dog's eyes fueled speculation about her involvement. In the final TV debate, although he opposed dog meat consumption, he said, "Don't they raise dogs separately for meat?" which drew strong protests from animal rights groups.

Although Yoon trailed Representative Hong in public opinion polls, he won decisively with overwhelming support from party members.

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