Lee Jun-seok, Ahead of Yoon's Campaign Committee Formation, Repeatedly Says "Time to Be Calm" Amid 'Mammoth Camp' Concerns

"What's Important in Elections Is Not Just 'Filling the List'"

Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party (left), and presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol shake hands before lunch at a restaurant in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 6th.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, repeatedly urged the removal of "hyenas and flies" regarding the composition of Yoon Seok-yeol's presidential campaign committee, saying it is "time to be cold-hearted." This is interpreted as a call to dismantle the existing Yoon campaign, which was organized as a massive organization of about 300 people including former and current lawmakers and party district committee heads, and to carry out a complete reorganization.

On the 7th, Lee emphasized in a post on Facebook, "What is important in elections is to coldly calculate votes by looking at the preferences of the people, not a clumsy 'We Are the World' or 'filling the list,'" adding, "People who can go out by walking or by force should gather."

He then quoted a line from the movie Moneyball: "The goal should not be to buy players. The goal should be to buy wins. To do that, you have to buy runs."

In an interview with JTBC on the 6th, Lee also said, "I mentioned 'hyenas' during the election process, and former emergency committee chairman Kim Jong-in mentioned 'flies.' (Yoon) needs to properly understand the concerns raised by former and current party leaders at certain points," adding, "I think it is time to be cold-hearted."

He continued, "People who want to be heads of organizational or functional headquarters usually want to run in next year's metropolitan mayoral elections and are preparing for their own elections, not people who want to help the candidate," emphasizing, "Looking at the camp's activities over the past two months, we need to coldly evaluate whether many votes were gained or if there were many factors causing vote loss."

Meanwhile, according to media reports on the 7th, former chairman Kim is expected to lead the party's election campaign committee as the overall campaign chairman of the People Power Party.

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