DP Committee Says "Difficult to View Preferential Voting System as Violation of Party Constitution and Regulations"

"Supreme Council Should Conclude Discussions by the 10th"
One Out of Five Elected Supreme Council Seats to Be Reserved for a Youth Member

The Party Convention Preparation Committee (the Committee) of the Democratic Party of Korea has interpreted that the proposed implementation of a preferential voting system for the party leader election does not constitute a violation of the party constitution or bylaws. Some members, particularly those aligned with the pro-Jeong Cheongrae faction, have objected, arguing that the preferential voting system violates the party constitution. As a result, the proposal is currently pending at the Supreme Council.

Lee Yeonhee, a Democratic Party lawmaker and spokesperson for the Committee, met with reporters at the National Assembly on the 9th after the Committee's plenary session, stating, "The majority opinion within the Committee was that it is difficult to see this as a violation of the party constitution or bylaws."

(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Kwangmo Hwang = Lee Yeonhee, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and secretary of the Party Convention Preparation Committee, is answering questions after briefing the results of the 4th meeting of the Party Convention Preparation Committee held at the National Assembly on the 9th. 2026.7.9

It is reported that there were no additional comments or objections regarding the preferential voting system during the meeting that day.

Assemblywoman Lee explained, "The preferential voting system was approved by the Committee and is scheduled to go through a Supreme Council resolution before being finalized by the Party Executive Committee, but it is currently pending at the Supreme Council." She added, "We will have to wait and see the outcome of the final discussions. Since a Supreme Council meeting is scheduled for the 10th, it would be preferable for a decision to be reached then. However, if there is no conclusion on the 10th, we are considering the option of convening an emergency Supreme Council meeting over the weekend to resolve the matter."

The Supreme Council of the Democratic Party convened a meeting late the previous night to discuss whether to adopt the preferential voting system, but was unable to reach a decision. Pro-Jeong Cheongrae Supreme Council member Lee Sungyun argued, "The party constitution and bylaws clearly stipulate that the election of the party leader must be determined by a runoff vote, yet the Committee has suddenly ignored these rules. This is a clear violation of the party constitution and bylaws, rendering the proposal invalid."

The preferential voting system allows voters to rank their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice candidates on the ballot. In the first count, if any candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, that candidate is declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority, the votes of those who selected the third-place candidate as their first choice are redistributed to their second-choice candidates. This process identifies a majority winner on the spot, eliminating the need for an additional round of voting.

The Committee also approved the introduction of a youth Supreme Council member. Out of the five elected Supreme Council members, one will be separately elected as the youth Supreme Council member. If there are four or more candidates for the youth Supreme Council seat, a preliminary election will be held to narrow the field down to three candidates.

Regarding the weighting ratio for strategic regional delegates and dues-paying party members, it was decided to assign a 5% weighting to the valid voting results of delegates and dues-paying party members from the Daegu, Gyeongbuk, and Gyeongnam regions.

As for the preliminary election process, it was decided that there will be three party leader candidates and eight Supreme Council member candidates advancing from the preliminary round. Voting for the party leader will be conducted online by central committee-level members and dues-paying party members, while public opinion polls will be conducted using the RDD (Random Digit Dialing) method among Democratic Party supporters and unaffiliated voters. All voting will take place online. The vote percentages and rankings from the preliminary election will not be disclosed.

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