Liberal heavyweight Kim Boo-kyum on Monday formalized his bid for mayor of Daegu, a conservative stronghold, as the Democratic Party of Korea envisions a dominating victory in the upcoming June local elections.
The former four-term lawmaker, who served as prime minister during the Moon Jae-in administration, has claimed that conservative politicians take votes from Daegu residents for granted, despite the lack of progress in the city's economic development.
Speaking at a press conference at the National Assembly, Kim called on Daegu voters to help "address political imbalance," saying June 3 is the right time to break the conservative hold on the city.
Daegu, a metropolitan city in Korea's southeast and home to over 2.3 million people, has elected right-leaning mayors since 1995, when South Korea held its first full-scale local elections since democratization.
Over the past three decades, however, Daegu has recorded the lowest gross regional domestic product per capita out of all municipalities and provinces in South Korea.
Kim was previously elected to the National Assembly in a constituency in Daegu in 2016, the first time a liberal was elected there in 45 years. He was also runner-up in the 2014 Daegu mayoral election.
He pledged to boost artificial intelligence adoption in Daegu's industrial facilities, create more jobs, and ease financial burdens on the Daegu municipal government linked to the relocation of Daegu Air Base by attracting private-sector investment.
Kim's mayoral bid follows a meeting with Democratic Party Chair Rep. Jung Chung-rae on Thursday, when Jung asked Kim to consider his candidacy. Kim, who had retired from politics in 2022, said he would finalize his decision soon. If Kim's Democratic Party candidacy is confirmed, it would be his second Daegu mayoral bid.
His announcement came amid mounting controversies surrounding rival party candidate selections. Some hopefuls from the main opposition People Power Party, including Deputy National Assembly Speaker Rep. Joo Ho-young, have refused to accept the party's decision to eliminate them from contention.
An election prediction by Realmeter released Wednesday suggested that Kim was polling ahead of all People Power Party hopefuls.
Lee Jin-sook was the only Daegu mayor hopeful to fall within the margin of error, while the other seven conservative hopefuls polled decisively outside it. Lee was a former chief of the now-defunct media watchdog Korea Communications Commission and is considered a far-right figure.
Lee and Joo were dropped from the People Power Party's local election candidate selection committee's consideration on March 22.
A separate Realmeter poll released Monday also showed that nationwide support for the ruling Democratic Party came to 51.1 percent, while support for the People Power Party reached 30.6 percent.
consnow@heraldcorp.com
