Who Is the Final Winner in the Three-Way Race for the Second Half Chairperson of Seoul Metropolitan Council?

Choi Hojung Floor Leader, Park Junghwa Traffic Committee Chairman, Nam Changjin Vice Chairman Three-Way Race... Unpredictable Voting Results Against Top Election Experts Including National Assembly, City Council, and District Council Members... Like the Upset Where Six-Term Veteran Candidate Chu Mi-ae Was Eliminated and Five-Term Woo Wonsik Was Selected as the 22nd National Assembly Speaker, Player May Not Be a Decisive Factor

The excitement over the selection of the candidate for the second half chairman of the 11th Seoul Metropolitan Council is gradually heating up.

The Seoul Metropolitan Council (Chairman Kim Hyun-gi) plans to select the candidate for the second half chairman by the 25th, and the behind-the-scenes movements of the candidate camps are also accelerating.

In particular, since the candidate from the majority party in the Seoul Metropolitan Council, the People Power Party (75 seats), is expected to be confirmed as the chairman candidate, the outline of the candidate group is becoming clear.

The second half chairman will take office on July 1 and lead the Seoul Metropolitan Council for two years.

So far, the chairman candidate election is likely to be a three-way contest among Choi Ho-jung, the floor leader of the People Power Party (Seocho 4), Park Jung-hwa, the chairman of the Transportation Committee (Seongdong 1), and Nam Chang-jin, the vice chairman (Songpa 2).

Choi Ho-jung, the floor leader (57), is a three-term lawmaker, the second most senior after the four-term Chairman Kim Hyun-gi, and has served as the second-in-command within the party in the council for two years, so the lawmakers have somewhat evaluated his leadership.

Park Jung-hwa, chairman of the Transportation Committee (63), is a second-term lawmaker who is known to have maintained good relations with other lawmakers while preparing for the chairman election.

Nam Chang-jin, vice chairman (72), a businessman from the construction industry, is also reported to have good relations with the lawmakers.

Among them, Floor Leader Choi is expected to emphasize his advantage as the most senior member to appeal for support from the lawmakers. However, attention is focused on whether he can overcome the significant blow he suffered when he was the chief sponsor of the ordinance to repeal the restriction on the use of the Rising Sun Flag, which was pushed mainly by Kim Gil-young, the floor deputy leader, just before the April 11 general election, and was so controversial that Han Dong-hoon, then the central election committee chairman of the People Power Party, issued a statement to halt it.

Chairman Park is expected to continue to appeal to lawmakers until the last moment by leveraging his personal relationships with them.

Vice Chairman Nam also holds some support among certain lawmakers, so it will be interesting to see if he can make a final push.

Among them, Choi’s camp is known to be composed of former National Assembly aides, while Park’s camp includes former local council members.

However, since the 75 People Power Party lawmakers have likely assessed the leadership and vision of these three candidates through contact over the past two years in the first half, it is expected that choosing will not be very difficult.

Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that candidates for important standing committee chair positions such as the Operations Committee chairman are also emerging based on their relationship with the chairman candidates, which could become a last-minute election variable.

Within the council, certain lawmakers supporting specific candidates are already being mentioned as candidates for standing committee chair positions.

In addition, Chairman Kim Hyun-gi, who led the Seoul Metropolitan Council for the first half two years, is receiving evaluations that he raised the status of the council to a higher level with his exceptional judgment, rational leadership, and strong drive, which is expected to influence the final election outcome.

The problem is that this election is also among seasoned politicians, making it difficult to predict until the very end.

Considering the surprise when the 22nd National Assembly Democratic Party elected members chose Woo Won-shik (five terms) as the first half National Assembly chairman candidate instead of Chu Mi-ae (six terms), who was recommended by the powerful party leader Lee Jae-myung, it seems difficult to predict the Seoul Metropolitan Council chairman candidate until the lid is opened.

An official said, “It is very difficult to predict an election among lawmakers who are top experts in their own right,” and added, “The People Power Party’s Seoul Metropolitan Council chairman candidate election may not reveal its outline until the last moment.”

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