PPP Cancels Gangneung Constituency Chair Application... To Link With Next Year's By-Election Nomination

Jeong Heeyong:
"Linking with Next Year's Process
Is the Most Efficient Approach"

The People Power Party has decided to cancel the application process for the position of Gangneung City Party Committee Chief. Instead, the party plans to link the selection process to next year's by-election nomination procedures for the National Assembly.

Jeong Heeyong, Chairman of the Special Committee on Organizational Reinforcement of the People Power Party (Secretary General), announced during the 24th meeting of the committee held at the party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, on September 17.

Jeong Heeyong, Chairman of the Special Committee on Organizational Reinforcement of the People Power Party (Secretary General). Photo by Yonhap News

Chairman Jeong stated, "Considering that a by-election for the National Assembly is scheduled to take place in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, in April next year, we have determined that it would be more efficient to connect the selection of the committee chief to the nomination process of the by-election, rather than appointing a separate committee chief." He added, "I will recommend to the party leadership that the candidate selection process for the Gangneung by-election proceed as quickly as possible."

The position of Party Committee Chief is appointed by the party headquarters for each region, and the appointee usually becomes the head of the local party members' council. In the case of Gangneung, due to the loss of parliamentary status by former lawmaker Kwon Seong-dong—whose sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court—the region became an accident-prone Party Council (a region without a chief of the party council). It is known that a total of six individuals had applied for the recently announced recruitment for the Gangneung Committee Chief position.

The Special Committee on Organizational Reinforcement will conduct candidate interviews for three days, including September 18 and 21, for the other 35 accident-prone Party Councils excluding Gangneung. Chairman Jeong said, "We will comprehensively assess factors such as party identity and competitiveness and, based on these evaluations, determine the suitability of each applicant as a candidate for Party Committee Chief."

Chairman Jeong added, "Where the results of the interviews enable a single recommendation, that candidate will be presented to the party’s Supreme Council as a nominee for Party Committee Chief. In regions where a single recommendation is not possible, we plan to select the Party Committee Chief through a vote by responsible party members in the respective regions."

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