Gwangju Seo-gu Eul Selected as a 'Strategic Nomination Area,' Candidates Calculating Their Moves

Candidates Rush to Announce Statements... Claims on Party Rules and Nomination Regulations

The Democratic Party of Korea has included Gwangju Metropolitan City Seo-gu (Eul) electoral district as a strategic constituency, accelerating the calculations among the candidates.

Gwangju Seo-gu (Eul) is the only one among the eight electoral districts in Gwangju where the Democratic Party seat is vacant, following the departure of Representative Yang Hyang-ja from the party.

Im Hyuk-baek, Chair of the Nomination Management Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, is presiding over the 1st Central Party Public Office Candidate Recommendation Management Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 12th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Currently, Yang Bu-nam, the Democratic Party's Legal Committee Chair, has already declared his intention to run, and on the 15th, Representative Kim Kyung-man (Democratic Party, proportional representation) and Kim Kwang-jin, Gwangju City’s Deputy Mayor for Economy and Culture, each announced their candidacies and began election campaigns.

Earlier, Representative Kang Eun-mi (Justice Party, proportional representation) also declared her candidacy on the 10th. The incumbent in the district, Representative Yang Hyang-ja (CEO of Hope of Korea), recently held a book launch event and mentioned the possibility of a big tent alliance in the third zone but did not specify her intention regarding running in the current district.

Upon news that Seo-gu (Eul) was selected as a strategic constituency, each prospective candidate has issued statements regarding this.

The election campaign headquarters of prospective candidate Yang Bu-nam released a statement asserting that if a strategic nomination is made, Yang is the most suitable candidate.

They emphasized that Yang served as the head of the legal support team for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, fought against Yoon Seok-yeol and the People Power Party, and has been active as the Democratic Party’s Legal Committee Chair since September 2022, protecting the party and its leader from Yoon Seok-yeol’s prosecutorial republic. They also highlighted that Yang is currently leading overwhelmingly in local opinion polls.

In particular, they explained that Article 10 of the party regulations, “Regulations on the Recommendation of Public Office Candidates and Evaluation Committee for Elected Officials,” states that “If a proportional representation member of the National Assembly applies to be a candidate for a district member of the National Assembly, that candidate cannot be selected as a strategic candidate.” Among those who declared their intention to run in Seo-gu (Eul), Kim Kyung-man (current proportional representative member) and Kim Kwang-jin (former proportional representative member) fall under this rule.

However, prospective candidate Kim Kwang-jin entered the National Assembly through proportional representation during the 19th National Assembly, and since the party regulations do not specify “former and current proportional representatives,” interpretation on this matter is expected to be necessary.

The election campaign committee of prospective candidate Kim Kwang-jin also issued a statement emphasizing “youth and women first.”

They cited that on the 11th, the Democratic Party’s Central Committee’s general election planning team finalized the general election nomination rules to “prioritize youth and women in strategic constituencies” and forwarded the opinion to the nomination committee. Accordingly, Seo-gu (Eul) as a strategic electoral district should be prioritized for youth and women nominations.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party selected 17 districts as strategic constituencies, including areas where incumbent members declared they would not run and districts where incumbents left the party. The party’s constitution and regulations state that “districts where the incumbent member of the National Assembly or the district committee chairperson is vacant due to non-candidacy or disqualification by the accident committee” can be selected as strategic constituencies.

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