President Lee on Ruling Party Deposit Hike: "Young Candidates Struggling, Should We Revert It?"

President Lee Jae-myung stated on July 19, regarding the controversy over the Democratic Party’s increase in candidate deposits, “If possible, I suggest considering returning the candidate deposit to its previous level.”

On his X account (formerly Twitter) the same day, President Lee explained, “It’s not that the party’s finances are struggling, and there is a need for both consideration of the difficulties faced by young people and policy support.”

President Lee Jae-myung is giving a greeting at the 'Committee of Light' launch ceremony and citizen invitation event held at the Blue House's Reception Hall on the 17th. Photo by Yonhap News

President Lee remarked, “In this party leadership election, the candidate deposit has been significantly raised, and especially for young candidates, the deposit has been increased several times, making it difficult for them. While incumbent lawmakers have salaries and political funding, which may reduce their burden somewhat, for those outside parliament—especially young people—the burden will be heavy.”

He continued, “As someone who also struggled with financial hardship in youth and overcame the barriers of vested interests through countless challenges, I would like to at least help publicize the sponsorship accounts for young candidates.”

He further emphasized, “Not being able to run for office because of money is not only a sad reality, but it also encourages corruption.”

He said, “One of the most widely recognized and fundamentally transformative aspects of President Roh Moo-hyun’s political reforms was introducing a system for less expensive elections—that is, the public election system. Without President Roh’s ‘election without money’ reforms, I would not even have been able to dream of entering politics myself.”

President Lee also commented about his post, “There may be those who criticize this as interference in party affairs; however, according to current law and the party’s constitution and regulations, even the president may express opinions on their party’s affairs as a member. I hope there are no misunderstandings.”

Recently, ahead of the party convention, voices of protest have arisen in the Democratic Party over the increased candidate deposit. Former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok criticized, “Compared to the period when Lee Jae-myung was party leader, young and disabled candidates must now pay an additional 30 million won for the party leader nomination and 17.5 million won more for a top committee nomination.” Kim Hyung-nam, a preliminary candidate for the party’s top committee, also wrote on social media, “This year, the deposit for the preliminary top committee nomination is 20 million won. That’s an abrupt increase of 400 percent.”

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