Ruling Party Selects National Assembly Speaker Candidate... Three-Way Race Among Park Jie-won, Cho Jeong-sik, and Kim Tae-nyeon

by Moon Hyewon

Published 13 May.2026 08:38(KST)

Updated 13 May.2026 20:58(KST)

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The Democratic Party of Korea will hold a general assembly of its lawmakers on the afternoon of May 13 to elect candidates for the Speaker of the National Assembly for the second half of the 22nd National Assembly, as well as the Deputy Speaker position allocated to the ruling party.

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

The candidates for the National Assembly Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be determined by combining the results of an online vote by party members, which was held from May 11 to 12 (accounting for 20%), and an in-person vote by lawmakers to be held on this day (accounting for 80%). If no candidate secures a majority in the first round of voting, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates.

This is the first time that the party member vote will be reflected in the selection process for the Democratic Party's National Assembly Speaker candidate. There are expectations that the sentiment of the party's base could determine the outcome.

Three lawmakers are vying for the National Assembly Speaker candidacy: Park Jie-won (five-term), Cho Jeong-sik (six-term), and Kim Tae-nyeon (five-term), listed in order of candidate number. For the Deputy Speaker position allocated to the Democratic Party, lawmakers Nam In-soon (four-term) and Min Hong-chul (four-term) are running.

The Democratic Party plans to convene a plenary session on May 20 to hold a vote for the election of the National Assembly leadership for the latter half of the term. The vote will be conducted as a simple yes-or-no ballot. As 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 difficulty.