With the death of former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, the Democratic Party of Korea's leadership race, which had been quiet for a week, appears set to resurface. Intra-party conflict over the "one person, one vote" system for delegates and dues-paying members and the merger with the Rebuilding Korea Party is expected to intensify this week.
The Democratic Party will convene its Central Committee on the morning of the 2nd to begin amending the party constitution to introduce the one person, one vote system. The system was voted down at the Central Committee meeting on Dec. 5 last year due to low participation. The one person, one vote system would change the ratio at which delegates' and dues-paying members' votes are reflected from the current 20 to 1 to 1 to 1, and is a key campaign pledge of Chair Jung, who enjoys strong support from dues-paying members.
Voting on the one person, one vote system runs until 6 p.m. on the 3rd. If adopted, it is seen as increasing Chair Jung's chances of winning another term in the party leadership election to be held this year. Because there is a strong possibility that Prime Minister Kim Min-seok will run for party chair as the candidate of the pro-Lee Jae-myung faction, tensions continue between the pro-Jung Chung-rae and pro-Lee Jae-myung camps over the introduction of the one person, one vote system.
Opposition is even fiercer over the merger with the Rebuilding Korea Party. Resistance has grown more overt, with moments such as a pro-Lee Jae-myung Supreme Council member and a Cabinet member being captured by a media camera discussing on Telegram a "secret merger deal."
The Democratic Party plans to hold a general meeting of its lawmakers and discussion sessions at the 17 city and provincial party chapters as early as this week to discuss the merger with the Rebuilding Korea Party. The issue is also likely to come up at the Supreme Council meeting to be held this week. Among Democratic Party Supreme Council members, lawmakers Lee Un-ju, Hwang Myung-seon, and Kang Deuk-gu have publicly voiced opposition to a merger.
The first-term lawmakers' group known as "Deomincho" will also hold a meeting on the 2nd to gather opinions on the merger. They had planned to discuss the issue on the 26th but postponed the schedule due to the former prime minister's death.
Chair Jung Chung-rae's camp maintains that, to smoothly conduct the local elections, merger-related procedures must be completed by mid- to late March. Although Chair Jung's side said this was "President Lee Jae-myung's long-held view," opponents countered, saying, "We confirmed there was no communication with the president." With only about a month and a half left, a rapid pace is required to reach a merger, making the direction of intra-party sentiment this week the key variable.