The Democratic Party of Korea is pushing to revise party rules to introduce a preferential voting system for the Aug. 17 national convention to elect the party leader.
Chief spokesperson Kang Jun-hyun met with reporters after a closed-door Supreme Council meeting on the morning of the 14th and said, "Ahead of the 3rd regular national party members' convention, we sought to revise party rules to minimize controversy over the regulations for electing the leadership," adding, "The Supreme Council approved a party rule revision that specifies that preferential voting and a runoff can be used as methods to conduct a runoff vote."
The Democratic Party will convene the party affairs committee in the afternoon to approve the amendment. If it passes the party affairs committee, the preferential voting system will be introduced at this convention.
Preferential voting is a method in which, when there are two or more candidates, voters rank all candidates from first preference to last. The count begins with first-preference ballots only. If a candidate wins a majority at that stage, the winner is determined immediately. If no one has a majority, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and the last-place candidate's ballots are reallocated to the remaining candidates based on their second preferences to determine the winner.
In the end, preferential voting is a structure in which second-preference choices decide victory or defeat. In this party leader race, two candidates, Kim Min-seok and Song Young-gil, emerged from the pro-Myung (pro–Lee Jae-myung) camp, making it likely to be favorable to the pro-Myung faction.
Because of this, the pro-Cheong (pro–Jeong Cheong-rae) camp has opposed introducing preferential voting. Supreme Council member Lee Seong-yoon, from the pro-Cheong camp, stepped out during the Supreme Council meeting and said, "This is utterly unacceptable," adding, "I see it as difficult to carry out the duties of a Supreme Council member under these circumstances, so as of today I will step down from the position."
Other pro-Cheong Supreme Council members said they would accept the conclusion to avert a breakdown while maintaining their opposition to preferential voting. Supreme Council member Park Gyu-hwan told reporters, "I cannot understand why a specific voting method is being relentlessly pushed through even by violating the party constitution and rules," but added, "We had no choice but to make a decision because we cannot halt the ruling Democratic Party, which must bear unlimited responsibility for state affairs and run for the people and for the success of the Lee Jae-myung administration."
The introduction of a youth Supreme Council member system was voted down. The plan was to elect one of the five elected Supreme Council members as a youth seat, but it did not pass in the Supreme Council vote. Chief spokesperson Kang said, "Because the agenda on the youth Supreme Council member was voted down, it appears it must be sent back to the preparatory committee for re-discussion," adding, "There is no impact at all on the candidate registration schedule."
Pro-Myung Supreme Council members Kang Deuk-gu and Hwang Myeong-seon met with reporters after the meeting and welcomed the introduction of preferential voting while expressing regret over the rejection of the youth Supreme Council member system. Supreme Council member Hwang Myeong-seon said, "We will continue to push until the youth Supreme Council member system is adopted and will gather party members' support." Supreme Council member Kang Deuk-gu criticized, "The binding force regarding violations of the party constitution and rules lies with the party affairs committee, but (the pro-Cheong camp) never once agreed to refer it to the party affairs committee. Does this make any sense? In a word, it's laughable."