Mayor Park Junhee of Gwanak District Wins Manifesto Promise Award Grand Prize for Third Consecutive Term

The Only Seoul District Mayor to Receive the Grand Prize for the 9th Election Pledge Book

Park Junhee, Mayor of Gwanak District, announced on August 25 that he received the Grand Prize in the Election Pledge Book category at the "2026 Manifesto Promise Awards for Local Elections," organized by the Korea Manifesto Practice Headquarters.

Gwanak District Mayor Junhee Park, who won the grand prize at the '2026 Manifesto Promise Awards' ceremony held at Ferrum Tower in Jung-gu, Seoul. Provided by Gwanak District.

Mayor Park was the only recipient among the 25 district mayors in Seoul for the Election Pledge Book category in the 9th popularly elected term and has received the Grand Prize for three consecutive terms, following awards in the 7th term in 2018 and the 8th term in 2022. The awards ceremony was held on August 24 at Ferrum Tower in Jung-gu, Seoul.

The Manifesto Promise Awards for Local Elections are a program designed to promote a culture of policy-based elections and strengthen the foundation for fulfilling promises made to voters by assessing the specificity and feasibility of election pledges. This year’s evaluation looked at the pledge documents released by elected chiefs of metropolitan and basic local governments and superintendents of education nationwide during the 9th nationwide local elections. Major evaluation areas included clarity of goals, prioritization, implementation procedures, implementation period, funding strategies, philosophy and vision, and the democratic nature of the drafting process—covering seven categories in total.

Based on his 16 years of legislative experience—eight years as a Gwanak District councilor and eight years as a Seoul Metropolitan Council member—as well as his experience leading the district in the 7th and 8th terms, Mayor Park’s pledges included Gwanak S-Valley 3.0, the "Happy City for Single-Person Households," and the "Gwanaksan Sky Forest Trail" project. The district explained that its clear definition of policy objectives and priorities for each pledge, as well as the specified implementation procedures, timelines, and funding schemes—including district, city, national budgets, and private investment—were all factors reflected in the evaluation.

For the 9th popularly elected term, Mayor Park proposed "Innovative, Inclusive, and Collaborative Administration" as the government’s theme and "Best Together, Gwanak District" as its vision. The six key government goals are: the "Shared Economy" for innovation and mutual growth; the "Basic Happiness Society" for inclusivity; "Youth Capital of Korea" for young people; "Excellence in Education and Culture"; the "Healing Garden City" for sustainability and safety; and "AI Innovation Gwanak Office."

Meanwhile, the district announced that the fulfillment rate of its pledges during the 8th term was 99.8%, and that Gwanak District received the highest (SA) rating for three consecutive years in the nationwide evaluation by the Korea Manifesto Practice Headquarters of pledge implementation and information disclosure for local government chiefs.

Mayor Park Junhee stated, "This award is the result of the dedication of Gwanak District's 500,000 residents and staff working together to create a better future," adding, "I will continue to honor every promise made to residents, with humility and sincerity."

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