On the 28th, a day before early voting for the June 3 local elections, the People Power Party classified Daegu and North Gyeongsang (TK) as favorable regions and Seoul, Daejeon, and North and South Chungcheong, as well as Busan, Ulsan, and South Gyeongsang (Bu-Ul-Gyeong), as battleground regions based on its own race analysis.
Chung Hee-yong, the People Power Party campaign chief and secretary-general, held a press briefing at the party's central headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of the day and said, "With the passionate campaigning by our candidates and the recent support from former President Park Geun-hye, our base has consolidated, and we analyze that ultra-close races are emerging in many places," and stated accordingly.
Secretary-General Chung said, "For metropolitan mayors and provincial governors, we analyze North Gyeongsang and Daegu as favorable regions," adding, "The battlegrounds are Seoul, Busan, Gangwon, South Chungcheong, Daejeon, South Gyeongsang, and Ulsan. We are also rapidly closing the gap in North Chungcheong."
Chung said, "Looking at the published data, you can see the gap is narrowing rapidly, and internally we view the trend of narrowing as very steep," adding, "If the public comes out to the polls, I believe it will lay the groundwork for a comeback."
On the National Assembly by-elections and rerun elections, he said, "We see Dalseong County in Daegu as favorable, and Ulsan Nam-gu Gap and the Gongju-Buyeo-Cheongyang district in South Chungcheong as leaning battlegrounds."
He then urged a decision on single-candidate unification for the by-elections and reruns. Secretary-General Chung said, "Pyeongtaek-eul in Gyeonggi is absolutely not a place where Democratic Party of Korea candidate Kim Yong-nam and Rebuilding Korea Party candidate Cho Kuk can beat us," adding, "I heard yesterday that candidate Yoo Ui-dong and Hwang Kyo-ahn communicated. If there is a role for the central party so a meeting point can be found, we will explore it with a flexible and open attitude."
Regarding single-candidate unification in the Ulsan mayoral race, he appealed, "Independent candidate Park Maeng-woo previously served as our party's secretary-general, and he will know well the aspirations of Ulsan candidates including Kim Doo-kyum," adding, "As a junior secretary-general, I earnestly ask here that candidate Park respond to the aspirations of citizens."
On the situation in the Busan Buk-gap by-election, where People Power Party candidate Park Min-sik is trailing independent candidate Han Dong-hoon, he said, "We humbly accept public sentiment," adding, "With former President Park Geun-hye's visit yesterday as a turning point, I think the foundation for a chase will be laid, and if we campaign to the end together with our party's candidates, I think we can achieve meaningful results."
Secretary-General Chung said that, as part of a strategy of distributed voting, Representative Jang Dong-hyeok will participate in election day voting, while some leadership members will take part in early voting. He said, "The campaign headquarters recommended strategically dispersing voting among party leaders ahead of early voting and election day voting," adding, "Some party leaders agreed to participate, and we recommended that the party leader oversee the entire process to the end and take part in election day voting."
Regarding concerns raised in some quarters about early voting, he said, "The party formed the Fair Election Reassurance Voting Committee, strongly calling for fair and strict election management, and we strongly emphasized that shoddy voting such as basket voting and external removal, as in past elections, must never happen," adding, "At the party level, we plan to operate a monitoring team that watches CCTV 24 hours a day and to run a reassurance voting situation room."