People Power Party Launches Innovation Committee to Drive Party Reform..."Less Than 2 Years Until General Election"

Speculation on Intent to Preempt 'Innovation Issues' Ahead of the Field

Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, is talking with Kwon Seong-dong, floor leader, at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 2nd. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Following their victories in the March 9 presidential election and the June 1 local elections, the People Power Party, which set a 'winning streak' record, has decided to launch an innovation committee early to promote party reforms in preparation for the general election two years from now.

While the party leadership stated that the purpose of launching the innovation committee is to prepare early for the general election scheduled for April 2024, there is an interpretation that internally, it is a strategic move for Representative Lee Jun-seok, whose term has one year remaining, to lead party reform issues and solidify his position within the party. Since the Democratic Party of Korea, which suffered consecutive defeats in the presidential and local elections, is expected to engage in a 'competition of innovation' during its reorganization process, there is also speculation that this move aims to proactively respond to that.

After the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 2nd, Representative Lee Jun-seok told reporters, "Although we won the local elections, the election process revealed areas where the party needs to make more efforts and reforms," adding, "We have decided to immediately establish an innovation committee at the party level."

The innovation committee will be chaired by Representative Choi Jae-hyung, a former head of the Board of Audit and Inspection, and the members will be recommended by Supreme Council members without regard to seniority or whether they are insiders or outsiders, selecting one person each who has a clear reformist tendency. The innovation committee is expected to consist of about nine members, and recommendations for innovation committee members will be received within this week, with plans to launch the committee as early as next week.

Representative Lee said, "Winning the general election, which is less than two years away, is of utmost importance for the successful operation of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration," and added, "With about 600 days left until the general election, we will accelerate our reform and party renewal efforts."

He stated, "Until now, innovation committees have focused on political reform, dealing with issues like relinquishing parliamentary privileges or superficial gossip-related topics, but this time, as the ruling party whose membership has increased significantly from about 200,000 a year ago to about 800,000, we have decided to launch an innovation committee aimed at party reform by researching how to implement party member democracy more efficiently and improve the candidate nomination system."

Furthermore, Representative Lee Jun-seok is reportedly planning to create so-called 'Eutteum Party Members' through the innovation committee.

While existing responsible party members qualify by paying just 1,000 won per month, the plan is to establish 'elite party members' who meet more stringent conditions. The core idea is to grant the Eutteum Party Member status only to members who have completed a certain amount of education and passed qualification exams. This also signifies an intention to fully embrace the online party era through Eutteum Party Members.

Considering that some responsible party members influenced the primary election results in certain regions, causing the primary process to be less smooth in the recent local elections, a party official said that this plan was decided to be realized.

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