Democratic Party Decides Not to Strengthen Supreme Council Members' Authority... Maintains Current Composition Rights of Public Office Committee

"Reestablishing the Procedure for Forming the Public Office Committee Is Necessary, but Immediate One-Point Revision Is Difficult"

Ahn Gyu-baek, Chair of the Preparation Committee for the Democratic Party of Korea's National Delegate Convention, is giving an opening remark at the first policy platform subcommittee discussion of the preparatory committee held at the National Assembly on the 6th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The Democratic Party of Korea's plan to strengthen the authority of the Supreme Council members, which had been under consideration ahead of the August 28 party convention to elect the next leadership, has effectively been scrapped.

On the morning of the same day, Representative Jeon Yong-gi stated in a briefing after the preparatory committee meeting, "It was decided to maintain the current procedure for forming the Public Official Recommendation Committee (Gonggwanwi)." He explained, "We judged that a one-point amendment would be difficult as it could cause unnecessary misunderstandings ahead of the convention."

Previously, the preparatory committee had considered a plan to strengthen the authority of Supreme Council members by requiring the next leadership to obtain a 'resolution' rather than just a 'deliberation' from the Supreme Council when forming the Public Official Recommendation Committee. This issue attracted significant attention both inside and outside the party as it is directly related to the party leader's authority over general election nominations.

In particular, personnel close to Senior Advisor Lee Jae-myung, who is seen as a likely winner if he runs for party leader, strongly opposed the discussion, claiming it was an attempt mainly by non-Lee Jae-myung factions to reduce the party leader's authority.

Representative Jeon said, "We decided to discuss system improvements further," leaving open the possibility of addressing this issue in the long term.

He added, "There can be sufficient criticism as to why the Strategic Public Official Recommendation Committee is resolved by the Supreme Council and appointed by the party leader, but the Public Official Recommendation Committee is different," and said, "If a body is established to revise the party constitution and regulations in the future, this can be discussed."

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