'Once Again Marginalized Honam' Song Gap-seok Fails to Enter New Democratic Party Leadership

Jeonbuk's Han Byung-do and Jeonnam's Seo Sam-seok followed by third failure to enter central politics

Voices within the party about 'Honam alienation' and 'weakening Honam political power'... New leadership's challenge

Analysis of 'antipathy

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Song Gap-seok, a candidate for the Supreme Council member who challenged for the new leadership of the Democratic Party of Korea, suffered a defeat.

Candidate Song fought hard as the sole candidate from the Honam region and the only candidate from outside the metropolitan area, but it was not enough.

Following Jeonbuk’s Assemblyman Han Byung-do and Jeonnam’s Assemblyman Seo Sam-seok, Song was the third candidate from the Honam region to knock on the door of the Supreme Council, but he was frustrated again this time, resulting in Honam being excluded once more from the Democratic Party’s central politics.

According to the Democratic Party on the 28th, at the national delegate convention held at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Songpa-gu, Seoul, the combined results of the national delegates, party members with voting rights, general party members’ opinion polls, and public opinion polls showed that Candidate Song ranked 6th and failed to enter the leadership.

Candidate Song received 5,014 votes (17.89%) from national delegates, 76,272 votes (9.08%) from party members with voting rights, 5.77% in the first public opinion poll, 6.25% in the second public opinion poll, and 6.12% in the general party members’ opinion poll, recording a final total of 10.81%.

The first place was Candidate Jeong Cheong-rae with 25.2%, second place Candidate Go Min-jung with 19.33%, third place Candidate Park Chan-dae with 14.20%, fourth place Candidate Seo Young-kyo with 14.19%, fifth place Candidate Jang Kyung-tae with 12.39%, and seventh place Candidate Go Young-in with 3.88%.

After the joint speech meeting in Daejeon and Sejong on the 14th, Candidate Song rose to 7th place by combining the first public opinion poll results and party members’ votes, and then jumped to 6th place in the Gwangju and Jeonnam voting, leading to analysis that there was a possibility of entering the top 5.

With Candidate Song failing to enter the top 5 Supreme Council members, Honam has failed to produce a Supreme Council member for the third consecutive time.

Although Honam, known as the Democratic Party’s stronghold, holds the largest number of party members with voting rights outside the metropolitan area, the failure to elect a Supreme Council member for three consecutive times has inevitably led to criticism regarding the Democratic Party’s neglect of Honam and the weakening of Honam’s political influence.

It is also analyzed that the aftermath of the nomination controversies during the local elections when Candidate Song was serving as the chairman of the Gwangju City Party Committee, along with the historically low voter turnout, contributed negatively as a responsibility issue.

There is also an opinion that it was difficult to surpass the stronghold of the Lee Jae-myung faction candidates, many of whom were elected in this party convention and ran together.

A local political source pointed out, “During the last local elections, various risks such as nomination controversies made it difficult for Candidate Song to gain votes in Honam,” and added, “There still seems to be strong resentment toward Candidate Song, who is at the center of the responsibility for the opaque nomination suspicions.”

He continued, “Ultimately, Honam being excluded from central party politics for three consecutive times will inevitably have repercussions,” and said, “It is an important point for the new leadership to quickly regain the trust of Honam’s public opinion, which is the heart of the party.”

Meanwhile, on the same day, Lee Jae-myung was elected as the Democratic Party leader with 77.77%, defeating Park Yong-jin, who received 22.23%.

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