People Power Party Embracing Honam, Progressives, and Activists... Focus on Expanding Youth and Women

The People Power Party has begun expanding its outreach primarily in the Honam region and among progressive factions. Attention is focused on whether diversity will be broadened through youth and women in the upcoming nomination processes, including proportional representation and the national recommendation system.

People Power Party's Jeong Young-hwan, Chair of the Nomination Management Committee, is announcing the results of the primary election regions on the 2nd at the central party office in Yeouido, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 4th, Jang Dong-hyeok, Secretary General of the People Power Party, met with reporters at the central party office in Yeouido and said, "There are still two constituencies left to nominate candidates in Jeonnam," adding, "We will make every effort to field candidates in all 254 constituencies this time." The party's nomination committee announced on the 2nd that it had nominated candidates in all eight constituencies of Gwangju Metropolitan City. This marks the first time in 16 years since the 18th general election in 2008 that the conservative camp has nominated candidates in all areas of Gwangju. In the 21st general election, candidates were fielded in only two constituencies. The People Power Party also announced a policy to support 15 million KRW per person in election deposits for areas in the Honam region and others where no candidates have applied.

To target the Honam region and others, the party has also embraced the progressive camp. Kim Young-joo, a four-term Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, joined the People Power Party on the same day. Kim decided to leave the Democratic Party on the 1st in protest against being ranked in the bottom 20%. Through Facebook the day before, Kim stated, "Han Dong-hoon, the emergency committee chairman of the People Power Party, proposed joining the party to change Yeouido politics, which is trapped in factionalism, by expanding outreach to the centrist bloc," and added, "I fully agreed with Chairman Han's argument to expand outreach to the centrist bloc and change Yeouido politics."

The party is also actively recruiting from the activist circles. On the 23rd of last month, the People Power Party's nomination committee strategically nominated Ham Woon-kyung, chairman of the Democratic Movement Comrades Association, in Mapo-gu Eul, Seoul. This constituency is currently held by Democratic Party lawmaker Jung Cheong-rae, setting up what is called an 'activist match.' Ham, who was co-chairman of the 'Committee for National Unification, Democratic Achievement, and Democratic Liberation Struggle (Sammin-tu),' led the 1985 occupation of the U.S. Cultural Center in Seoul.

However, as the nomination process passed its midpoint, criticism poured in such as "there is no inspiration" and "lack of diversity." Therefore, attention is on whether the People Power Party will supplement diversity in the upcoming proportional representation and national recommendation nominations. As of the 29th of last month, the average age of candidates nominated by the People Power Party was 58.3 years, and the proportion of women was less than 10% of the total number of constituency lawmakers. Secretary General Jang said, "Through proportional representation nominations, we will fill the gaps and address the parts that the public finds lacking in constituency nominations," adding, "We will try our best to reflect the concerns raised by the media about the low proportion of women and youth in the proportional representation nominations."

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