The ruling People Power Party on Tuesday evening announced the four contenders for the party nomination who are advancing to the second round of its primary process ahead of the June 3 presidential election.
Former Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo, People Power Party Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, former People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon and ex-Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo were shortlisted by the party’s election management committee to continue competing in the primary.
Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, North Gyeongsang Province Gov. Lee Cheol-woo, People Power Party Rep. Na Kyung-won and former People Power Party lawmaker Yang Hyang-ja failed to make the cut.
While Yang will not be participating in the next round of the primary, she officially announced her endorsement of Han on Wednesday, citing the need for a leader with a "future-oriented" mindset.
Tuesday's results were determined from surveys conducted by five polling agencies on Monday and Tuesday, involving a combined 4,000 respondents.
The party did not disclose the rates of support from the surveys for the eight candidates who competed in the first round.
While the names of those who made the cut were announced by the head of the party’s election management committee Hwang Woo-yea, the former five-term lawmaker stressed that the announcement was made in Korean alphabetical order. It did not reflect the support rate the candidates received in any way, Hwang added.
The second round of the primary, which is the final one before the May 3 party convention, will involve multiple televised debates scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday and Monday, People Power Party members will vote for the candidate they think their party should nominate, while another public survey is also to be conducted.
The results for the second round of the primary will be weighted such that it will be determined half by the public survey and half by votes of party members, unlike the first round that only took the public opinion polls into consideration.
If the results point to a single candidate by early next week, then the primary is projected to wrap up with no further competition. However, if it is too close to call between two candidates, the primary is expected to continue into the party convention.
According to a Realmeter poll of all potential presidential candidates released this week, Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, held a strong lead with 50.2 percent of public support.
Trailing Lee was Kim Moon-soo with 12.2 percent. Han received 8.5 percent and Hong garnered 7.5 percent. Ahn saw 3.7 percent support.
South Korea will hold an early presidential election on June 3, following the Constitutional Court's formal removal of Yoon from the presidency for violating the law and democratic principles with his martial declaration on Dec. 3, 2024.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
