On March 24, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) named all five applicants to advance to the main primary for the Sejong mayoral race in the June 3 local elections.
Kim I-su, chair of the party’s central election committee, announced at the Yeouido party headquarters that preliminary candidates Ko Jun-il, Kim Soo-hyun, Lee Chun-hee, Cho Sang-ho, and Hong Soon-sik all advanced to the main primary.
Ko is a young, two-term member of the Sejong City Council. Kim previously served as director of Sejong City’s National Balanced Development Support Center. Lee is a two-term Sejong mayor. Cho served as political coordination chief for former DPK leader Lee Hae-chan, and Hong worked as Lee’s policy aide when Lee was a lawmaker.
If no candidate secures a majority in the main primary, the party will hold a runoff between the top two vote-getters.
For municipal-level posts in North Chungcheong Province, the party will weight registered party members’ votes at 30% and combine them with 70% from the general public via an anonymized phone-number system for the primary.
By region, the following candidates will contest primaries: Cheongju mayor — Kim Geun-tae, Kim Hak-gwan, Park Wan-hee, Seo Min-seok, Lee Jang-seop, Heo Chang-won; Chungju mayor — Gwak Myung-hwan, Noh Seung-il, Maeng Jeong-seop, Woo Geon-do, Lee Tae-seong; Jecheon mayor — Lee Sang-cheon, Jeon Won-pyo; Boeun county mayor — Park Yeon-su, Lee Tae-young, Ha Yoo-jung; Okcheon county mayor — Kim Jae-jong, Hwang Gyu-cheol; Yeongdong county mayor — Lee Soo-dong, Jung Il-taek; Goesan county mayor — Na Yong-chan, Lee Jun-gyeong, Lee Cha-young; Jeungpyeong county mayor — Kim Moon-jong, Yeon Jong-seok, Lee Jae-young; Jincheon county mayor — Kim Myung-sik, Park Young-gyu, Im Bo-yeol, Im Young-eun; Eumseong county mayor — Lee Sang-jung, Cho Byung-ok. In Danyang, Kim Gwang-jik applied as the sole candidate and was selected.
After announcing the screening results, Secretary-General Cho Seung-rae told reporters that a reexamination committee will meet tomorrow to review a reconsideration request from former spokesman Kim Ji-ho, who appealed after being cut from the Seongnam mayoral preliminary.
On the party’s candidate committee meeting scheduled for the 27th, Cho said races in Busan, Daegu, and North Gyeongsang remain undecided. He added that party leader Jeong Cheong-rae has formally asked former Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum to run, and he expects the matter to be resolved around Friday the 27th.
