"Resign Immediately, Song Gap-seok, Chairman of the Democratic Party Gwangju Branch"

Gwangju Kyung Sil Ryeon "Stubborn, Unprincipled, Anti-Reform Nomination Conducted"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The Gwangju Economic Justice Practice Citizens' Coalition criticized the Democratic Party of Korea's Gwangju City Party on the 12th, saying, "Instead of reforming candidate nominations, they are still repeating old-fashioned behaviors."

On the same day, Gwangju Kyungsilryeon issued a statement saying, "The candidate screening criteria are also showing inconsistent behavior by applying rubber-band standards that vary depending on the candidate, rather than fair and transparent principles," and pointed out, "It is completely like preaching to deaf ears and blowing in the wind, a reckless attitude that does not care no matter what anyone says."

They added, "Chairman Song Gap-seok announced on the 4th that two proportional representation seats for metropolitan councilors and several youth competitive constituencies will introduce a jury system for primaries. However, it has been reported that among the 20 city council constituencies, 8 constituencies, accounting for 40%, were designated as youth and women special zones without fair procedures, and only two youth special zones are planned to apply the citizen jury system, which is intensifying the controversy."

There are claims that the jury system is not applied to places where candidate nominations have already been rumored, and that the jury system is being introduced in two places with the purpose of excluding certain candidates or where there are no nominees.

The organization emphasized, "The constituencies where the jury system is to be introduced should first disclose the list of jurors," adding, "Given the current behavior, it is highly likely that the composition of the jurors will be arranged according to the tastes of the local committee chairpersons."

Furthermore, they urged, "We cannot expect candidate nomination reform, so we strongly call for the immediate resignation of Song Gap, chairman of the Gwangju City Party," and ordered, "Local committee chairpersons should no longer repeat the old-fashioned practice of placing their own people and lining them up to lead local councilors as the vanguard for their own elections ahead of the general election in two years."

They also condemned the candidate screening criteria as being out of touch with the spirit of the times.

The scoring criteria according to the Democratic Party's party constitution and regulations consist of a total of 100 points: identity and contribution 25 points, legislative activity ability (work performance ability) 10 points, morality 15 points, electability (suitability survey) 40 points, and interview 10 points.

Regarding this, Gwangju Kyungsilryeon expressed concern, saying, "Subjective qualitative evaluation accounts for much more of the scoring criteria than objective quantitative evaluation, making transparent and fair screening impossible from the start."

In particular, they criticized, "Legislative activity ability, which evaluates incumbent local councilors, is only 10 points, while electability (suitability survey) accounts for 40 points and identity and contribution take up 25 points," and added, "Gwangju, the Democratic Party's stronghold where even a stick planted would win, is not a difficult district, so it is utterly incomprehensible why electability (suitability survey) overwhelmingly accounts for 40 points."

As a result, local councilors are focusing more on managing party members and competing in loyalty to the local committee chairpersons who hold the nomination rights, rather than concentrating on legislative activities, repeating bad practices.

Finally, they reiterated, "It is not too late even now, so we strongly urge the Democratic Party to immediately implement a large-scale innovation process for repeated self-reflection and radical reform."

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