Democratic Party Begins Member Vote on Merger with Open Democratic Party... Four Days of Approval Voting

On the 22nd, Woo Sang-ho, the chief negotiator of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Jeong Bong-ju, the chief negotiator of the Open Democratic Party, along with other attendees, posed for a photo at the introductory meeting of the Democratic Party of Korea-Open Democratic Party unification negotiation delegation held at the National Assembly Members' Office Building. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] The Democratic Party of Korea will hold a unification vote with the Open Democratic Party for four days starting from the 7th.

The Democratic Party will conduct an online vote among all party members from 9 a.m. on the day until 6 p.m. on the 10th to decide on the unification with the Open Democratic Party.

Since the Open Democratic Party's member vote for unification was overwhelmingly approved with a 72.54% favorable rate, it is widely expected that the unification proposal will pass without any surprises this time as well.

If more than half of the party members vote in favor of unification, the Democratic Party plans to hold a Central Committee meeting on January 12, two days after the vote ends, to approve the unification agenda, and then hold a joint meeting of the two parties on the 14th to declare the completion of the unification. Currently, the Democratic Party holds 169 seats, and merging with the Open Democratic Party's 3 seats will increase the total to 172 seats.

This unification appears to be part of efforts to consolidate support ahead of the presidential election. A senior lawmaker said, "In a situation where driving the party's approval rating has become very important, the votes of the Open Democratic Party must clearly gather into the Democratic Party to create synergy."

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