Ruling Party to Select Speaker Candidate... Three-Way Race Among Park Jiwon, Cho Jeongsik, and Kim Taenyon

On May 13, the Democratic Party of Korea will hold a general assembly in the afternoon to elect candidates for the Speaker of the 22nd National Assembly for the second half of the term, as well as the Deputy Speaker representing the ruling party.

National Assembly Main Chamber, Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

The candidates for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be decided by combining the results of an online vote by party members (20%) held on May 11 and 12, and an in-person vote by lawmakers (80%) taking place on this day. If no candidate receives a majority in the first round, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates.

This is the first time that votes from party members are being reflected in the Democratic Party's process for selecting a candidate for the Speaker of the National Assembly. There are expectations that the will of the party members could determine the outcome.

The competition for the Speaker candidacy is a three-way race between Park Ji-won (fifth-term), Cho Jeong-sik (sixth-term), and Kim Tae-nyeon (fifth-term), listed in order of candidate numbers. For the Deputy Speaker position allocated to the Democratic Party, Nam In-soon (fourth-term) and Min Hong-chul (fourth-term) are running.

The Democratic Party plans to convene a plenary session on May 20 to vote for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker for the second half of the National Assembly. The voting will be a simple approval/disapproval vote, and since the ruling party holds a majority of the seats in the National Assembly, it is highly likely that the final candidate will be confirmed as Speaker without further contest.

However, the People Power Party insists that the date for the plenary session should be decided through bipartisan agreement.

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