Opposing Difficult Terrain Deployment, Ju Ho-young Faces Chun Ha-ram's "Jeong Se-gyun and Lee Nak-yeon Did It"

Joo Ho-young "You don't know how dangerous it is to move electoral districts recklessly"
Cheon Ha-ram "Floor leader, please come to the metropolitan area"

Cheon Ha-ram, a People Power Party candidate for the party leader in the March 8 convention, sparked controversy within the party by pledging that incumbent senior lawmakers would run in so-called 'difficult districts' in next year's general election. Joo Ho-young, the party's floor leader, opposed the idea, saying, "You don't know how dangerous it is to arbitrarily change electoral districts," while Cheon countered, "Chung Sye-kyun and Lee Nak-yeon challenged and succeeded," encouraging candidacies in the Seoul metropolitan area.

On the 28th, Floor Leader Joo appeared on KBS radio and said, "I don't know how much the central party has supervised and managed the general election nominations, but in the last 21st general election, our party changed many lawmakers' constituencies due to some wind and all failed," adding, "There are cases in the Democratic Party where some succeeded by moving from local areas to the metropolitan area, but those people worked on their constituencies for 3 to 4 years right after the general election to barely succeed. They don't realize how wrong it is to run an unprepared election."

Interview_ Cheon Haram, People Power Party Presidential Candidate. Photo by Kim Hyunmin kimhyun81@

In effect, Floor Leader Joo expressed opposition to Cheon’s proposal for incumbent lawmakers to run in the Seoul metropolitan area and Honam region.

In response, Cheon posted on his Facebook, saying, "A true mountaineer challenges new mountains even if they are dangerous," and urged, "Come to the metropolitan area."

He cited former lawmakers Chung Sye-kyun, who started as a National Assembly member from Jeonbuk and moved to Jongno District in Seoul, and Lee Nak-yeon, who moved from Jeonnam to Jongno, as examples, saying, "But in our party, you can hardly find such examples," and criticized, "Why do our party’s stronghold politicians always want to climb only Palgongsan?"

Cheon has recently been riding a wave of rising approval ratings. Although there is a close contest for second place, some polls show that he has surpassed candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, achieving a silver cross.

According to a poll conducted by the Korea Public Opinion Reputation Research Institute (KOPRA) commissioned by Goseongguk TV on the 24th and 25th, surveying 1,264 People Power Party members, the suitability ratings for the next party leader were: Candidate Kim 44%, Candidate Cheon 25%, Candidate Ahn 17%, and Candidate Hwang 12%. The response rate was 2.0%, with a margin of error of ±2.8% at a 95% confidence level.

However, there are also poll results showing Candidate Ahn leading outside the margin of error. According to a survey by polling specialist company Jowon C&I commissioned by CBS No Cut News from the 24th to 26th, targeting 613 People Power Party supporters among 1,535 nationwide adults aged 18 and over (margin of error ±4.0% at 95% confidence), the suitability ratings were: Candidate Kim Ki-hyun 49.3%, Candidate Ahn Cheol-soo 24.1%, Candidate Cheon 12.0%, and Candidate Hwang Kyo-ahn 10.7%. For more details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.

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