Democratic Party Begins Incumbent Evaluation... The ‘Final Hurdle’ for Local Election Opens

Briefing Sessions Begin This Weekend... Results Finalized in January Next Year
20% Deduction for Bottom Performers... Re-election Bid Becomes Difficult
Simultaneous Evaluation Across All Levels Including Gwangju and South Jeolla

The Democratic Party of Korea’s evaluation of incumbent elected officials will begin in earnest starting this weekend. With the ‘no cutoff’ policy still in place ahead of next year’s local elections, this effectively marks the final hurdle for incumbents seeking re-election.

According to the Gwangju City and South Jeolla Provincial branches of the Democratic Party on December 10, the party recently concluded a central-level briefing session on the evaluation of elected officials and will hold briefing sessions at the city and provincial branch level starting this weekend. Each branch has confirmed the list of candidates subject to evaluation by requiring incumbent officials to submit a ‘pledge of non-candidacy’ to clarify their intention to run.

Beginning with the briefing sessions, the city and provincial branches will activate the Elected Officials Evaluation Committee, which will conduct evaluations of current basic district heads and metropolitan and basic council members. For district heads, the main criteria will be morality, leadership, fulfillment of campaign pledges, job performance, and contribution to improving residents’ quality of life. For metropolitan and basic council members, the focus will be on legislative activity, administrative audits, regional contributions, and peer evaluations by fellow council members.

The Evaluation Committee is expected to complete its review over about a month and finalize the results around January 20 next year. Those who fall into the bottom 20% of the evaluation will face a 20% deduction in points or votes during the candidate screening and nomination process, making it virtually impossible for them to seek re-election.

As Representative Jung Chungrae has declared that “there will be no cutoffs,” this evaluation will serve as a key indicator of the competitiveness of incumbents. The Democratic Party will have the central party evaluate metropolitan district heads nationwide, while city and provincial branches will evaluate basic district heads. Metropolitan council members will be evaluated by each council or standing committee, and basic council members will be evaluated by each council.

According to these criteria, it is expected that among Democratic Party members, the bottom 20% will include one metropolitan district head, one basic district head in Gwangju, three basic district heads in South Jeolla Province, four metropolitan council members in Gwangju, and approximately eleven metropolitan council members in South Jeolla Province.

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