Kim Garam fills the vacancy left by Tae Young-ho... Will she become the spearhead of the ruling party's westward policy?

40s Supreme Council Member Former Honam and Youth Spokesperson
Expectations for Restoring Supreme Council Status and Settling Honam Public Sentiment

Kim Garam, former youth spokesperson, filled the vacant seat in the People Power Party's Supreme Council left by the resignation of former Supreme Council member Tae Young-ho. Accordingly, there is hope that the party's Supreme Council, which recently faced setbacks due to risks of verbal slips by council members and controversies surrounding the '5-person group,' can return to its normal track. Newly appointed Supreme Council member Kim pledged to leverage his strengths as a former Honam and youth spokesperson to lead the party's outreach expansion.

The People Power Party's by-election election management committee announced on the 9th that in this vote, with 539 participants out of 828 national committee electors (voter turnout 65.10%), Kim received 381 votes and was elected. His competitors, candidate Lee Jong-bae received 135 votes, and candidate Cheon Gang-jeong received 23 votes respectively.

Attention is focused on whether the Supreme Council can regain its stature now that the vacancy has been filled through this by-election. Recently, controversy arose over the '5-person group' mentioned by People Power Party lawmaker Lee Yong-ho, leading to debates about a 'plant Supreme Council' and 'Supreme Council bypassing.' There are concerns that the party's highest decision-making body, the Supreme Council, is not fulfilling its role. Although Lee retracted his remarks on Facebook, the controversy continued, prompting party leadership including leader Kim Ki-hyun to dismiss it as "not worth considering."

Additionally, the People Power Party has been engulfed in 'Supreme Council risks' due to a series of verbal slip controversies by Supreme Council members. Supreme Council member Kim Jae-won caused a stir with remarks such as 'Jeon Gwang-hoon right-wing unification' at the Sarang Jeil Church service, and member Tae caused controversy with comments about 'Jeju 4.3 Kim Il-sung monument' and 'Lee Jin-bok chief secretary recording.' As a result, the party leadership, which should lead efforts to rally the support base ahead of the general election, has instead been criticized as a factor negatively affecting approval ratings.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In particular, newly elected Supreme Council member Kim, who is from Honam, is expected to contribute to rekindling the People Power Party's Seo-jin policy. The party is in a situation where it needs to recover the Honam public sentiment following Kim's remarks opposing the inclusion of the '5.18 Spirit' in the constitution. The party leadership and lawmakers also visited Gwangju for the 43rd anniversary ceremony of the May 18 Democratic Movement.

Kim, who is also a former youth spokesperson, expressed his determination to expand the party's outreach to the youth and Honam regions. In his victory speech, he said, "(Last year) the party's situation was very chaotic. The cause seemed not to be differences in thoughts or philosophy but generational conflicts." He added, "Therefore, my role within the party is to act as a bridge in my 40s connecting the 20s and 30s with the 50s and 60s, linking the older and younger generations."

In a Q&A session, Kim said, "I believe I should be where our party is most vulnerable and struggling." He continued, "Our opponent is not the Democratic Party of Korea but the people of Honam. I will not forget that there is not a single People Power Party-affiliated local government head or lawmaker in Gwangju and Jeonnam, and I will make efforts on the ground."

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