Kim Sangwook of Democratic Party Named Unified Opposition Candidate for Ulsan Mayor... Kim Jonghoon of Progressive Party Withdraws

On May 28, just one day before early voting for the June 3 local elections, the Democratic Party and the Progressive Party selected Kim Sangwook, the Democratic Party candidate, as the unified candidate for Ulsan mayor through a public opinion poll primary. Kim Jonghoon, the Progressive Party candidate who lost in the primary, accepted the result and submitted his resignation to the Ulsan City Election Commission.

The two candidates held a joint press conference in front of the Ulsan City Election Commission at around 5:50 p.m. on the same day to officially announce the primary results. The poll was conducted over a single day using a secure phone number system.

Kim Sangwook, the Democratic Party candidate for mayor of Ulsan, held a press conference on the afternoon of the 27th at his campaign office in Nam-gu, Ulsan, to announce his position on unification with the Progressive Party. Photo by Yonhap News

Both sides initially began public opinion polling on May 23 and 24. However, Kim Sangwook’s camp raised an issue over the absence of a 'reverse selection prevention clause' and declared the suspension of the primary. Kim Sangwook’s camp proposed to restart the primary with safeguards to prevent organized intervention by specific groups, while the Progressive Party insisted on resuming the halted primary as soon as possible. As a result, the unification process reached an impasse.

Despite repeated breakdowns, the two parties reached a dramatic compromise as the early voting dates of May 29 and 30 approached. With growing concern that opposition unification could collapse as the election date drew near, Kim Jonghoon accepted Kim Sangwook’s proposal for a new primary on May 27, making the unification possible.

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