People Power Party Launches Nomination Management Committee to Kick Off 'March By-Election' Nominations (Comprehensive)

Appointment of 7 Committee Members Including Public Relations Chairman Kwon Young-se
Democratic Party Says... "No Decisions Made by Public Relations Committee"

Kwon Young-se, head of the People Power Party's election campaign headquarters, is attending the election campaign headquarters meeting held at the National Assembly on the 24th and delivering opening remarks. Photo by the National Assembly Press Photographers Group

[Asia Economy Reporters Jun Park and Jinyoung Jeon] The People Power Party has launched the nomination management committee for the parliamentary by-elections held alongside the March presidential election.

On the 24th, the People Power Party held a closed supreme council meeting at the National Assembly and approved the composition of the committee, including the chairperson. Accordingly, Kwon Young-se, the head of the election countermeasures headquarters and secretary-general, was appointed as the chairperson of the nomination management committee. Committee members include Lee Cheol-gyu, vice president of strategic planning, Park Seong-min, vice president of organization, lawmakers Lim I-ja and Kim Seung-su, Ji Sang-wook, director of the Yeouido Research Institute, and Park Myung-ho, professor of political science and diplomacy at Dongguk University.

At the meeting, the supreme council also approved changes to the eligibility requirements for responsible party members, stipulating that to apply for nomination as a public office candidate in this by-election only, members must pay party dues equivalent to three months per position. Party leader Lee Jun-seok explained, "This is revised each election to allow new recruits to join."

However, strategic nominations were not discussed at the supreme council meeting. Party chief spokesperson Heo Eun-ah responded regarding the strategic nomination agenda, saying, "Specific decisions will likely be made by the nomination management committee."

The supreme council also discussed prohibiting election campaigning activities such as wearing election sashes, installing banners, and sending text messages for preliminary candidates in the local elections scheduled for June. Spokesperson Heo explained, "We agreed to ask preliminary candidates to refrain from promoting their own elections," adding, "We judged that preliminary candidates taking photos with presidential candidates would not be helpful for the election."

On the other hand, the Democratic Party has not yet proceeded with discussions on forming a nomination management committee. They have also not reached a clear position regarding the nomination issue for the Jongno candidate. A Democratic Party official said about the timing of forming the nomination committee, "Nothing has been decided so far."

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