100% Party-Member Online Vote Narrows Field to Three; Main Primary Set for April 7–9
Park Joo-min, Jung Won-oh and Jeon Hyun-hee advanced from the Democratic Party’s preliminary to the main primary to select its Seoul mayoral candidate for the June 3 local elections.
Hong Ki-won, vice chair of the party’s Central Election Committee, announced at the party headquarters in Yeouido on the 24th that Park, Jung and Jeon (in ballot order) will be the party’s candidates in the main primary. Kim Hyung-nam and Kim Young-bae did not advance.
The preliminary was conducted entirely online from the previous day through 6 p.m. Eligible Seoul party members who had paid dues at least six times in the past 12 months cast ballots to narrow the field. Under party rules, individual candidate rankings and vote shares were not disclosed.
The main primary will be held April 7–9, with party-member voting and public opinion polls each accounting for 50% of the result. If no candidate secures a majority, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff April 17–19, and the party will confirm its final nominee on the 19th.
Pollsters will use virtual “secure numbers” to protect personal data. Because more than 5 million voters are eligible in the Seoul primary, they will sample 90,000 secure numbers. The sample will target supporters and unaffiliated voters, excluding eligible Democratic Party members.
Joint debates among the main primary candidates are scheduled for March 31 on MBC and April 3 on KBS. The host broadcasters and the Democratic Party’s YouTube channel 'Deli Minju' will simulcast the debates live.
