At the People Power Party Leadership Debate, Kim Says "Selfless Devotion"... Ahn Calls for "Systematic Nomination"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 20th, the candidates for the leader of the People Power Party continued their exchanges over next year's general election nominations and party-government relations during the second TV debate.

At the second TV debate hosted by MBN that day, candidate Kim Ki-hyun said regarding next year's general election nominations, "The party constitution and regulations clearly outline a bottom-up nomination system. There is a system in place to operate a jury panel if necessary," adding, "The problem is not the system but the people who operate it." He also criticized the 'Nomination Innovation' plan announced by candidate Ahn Cheol-soo the day before, saying, "Our party needs to be led by those with proven skills. We are not in a position to experiment and make trial-and-error mistakes."

Candidate Kim stated, "I will abandon selfish interests, refrain from self-serving politics, and become a leader of service and dedication for the success of the People Power Party and the Yoon Seok-yeol administration," emphasizing, "After great hardship, we achieved a regime change, and there must be no further internal strife caused by my selfish interests."

Candidate Ahn Cheol-soo said regarding the next general election nominations, "To win next year's general election, it is important that there be no nomination turmoil. If parachute nominations are imposed top-down, there will inevitably be nomination turmoil, so this must be eliminated." He also claimed toward candidate Kim, "Kim says he supports bottom-up nominations, but I don't recall any concrete plans."

Regarding nominations of 'Yunhaekgwan' (key associates of President Yoon Seok-yeol), he said, "Unconditionally rejecting Yunhaekgwan is also a form of favoritism, and unconditionally nominating them is also favoritism. It must be filtered through a system," advocating the necessity of system-based nominations.

Candidate Cheon Ha-ram, classified as non-Yoon (anti-Yoon Seok-yeol) faction, said about party-government relations, "When the president's opinion differs from mine, I will prioritize the president's opinion whenever possible," but added, "However, when the president's opinion sharply conflicts with the people's opinion, our party must prioritize the people's views."

He continued, "In such cases, I will try to communicate well with the president to convey the public sentiment, and if it concerns the crucial trust of the people, as the party leader, I will appropriately appeal even if it differs from the president's opinion," he emphasized.

Candidate Hwang Kyo-ahn said, "When I was party leader in February 2019, our party's approval rating was below 10%, but after I joined, it rose to over 20% within a month, and during the 2020 general election, the approval rating exceeded 35%," adding, "Through that process, the party that was almost dead was revived and eventually led to a regime change."

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