hankyoreh

Lee Jae-myung, Democratic Party candidate for a National Assembly seat in Incheon’s Gyeyang District and head of the party’s election committee, stands up to leave the party’s election night watch party on June 1. (National Assembly pool photo)

The Democratic Party succumbed to another nationwide election defeat after losing in this year’s presidential election in March.

According to vote counts reported by the National Election Commission (NEC) at 7 am on Thursday, the Democratic Party managed to win only five of the 17 mayoral and gubernatorial races it fought, with victories in Gwangju, North and South Jeolla provinces, and Jeju.

In the battleground of Gyeonggi Province, Democratic Party candidate Kim Dong-yeon managed to come from behind and eke out a win against People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Eun-hye after the lead had swung back and forth throughout the night. Even so, the public’s support was much weaker than four years earlier, when the party captured 14 out of 17 races.

The PPP also led the Democratic Party by a huge margin of 145 to 63 among the 226 elections for local government heads, including non-metropolitan city mayors, county governors, and district office chiefs. Twenty-two days after Yoon Suk-yeol took office as president, the results showed his message calling for “stability in governance” resonating much more strongly than the opposition’s calls for keeping his administration in check.

Exit poll results announced by South Korea’s three major terrestrial broadcast networks at 7:30 pm on Wednesday showed the PPP poised to win in a walk. The Democratic Party’s vote count situation room in the main conference room of the National Assembly Members’ Hall in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood was plunged into a deep silence upon hearing the announcement of exit poll numbers.

“We thank the public for their votes, and we will continue to watch the results through the end,” Yun Ho-jung, co-chair of the party’s emergency leadership committee, said at the time.

Speaking in a KBS interview shortly after the exit poll announcement, Park Ji-hyun a fellow emergency leadership committee co-chair, said, “I got the impression that the public does not really trust the Democratic Party very much, and I think we’re going to have to prepare to be disappointed watching the vote counts come in, and sit with a heavy heart.”

“In any case, the Democratic Party ought to have instituted more internal reforms in the wake of the presidential election, and it’s unfortunate that we don’t appear to have done that,” she added.

With the Democratic Party suffering a third straight nationwide election loss after the April 2021 by-elections and the presidential election in March, lurking conflicts appear poised to rise to the surface.

The party had cited its focus on the local elections as a justification for putting off a post-mortem on its presidential election defeat.

To begin with, controversy is expected to brew over the role of Lee Jae-myung, who threw his hat in the by-election ring despite attacks from within the party by critics characterizing his move as the “vanquished general’s homecoming” in the wake of his presidential election defeat.

When he announced his bid, Lee declared that he would lead the party to “winning more than half of the races nationwide.” But with a tight race underway even in the traditionally Democratic Party-friend Incheon Gyeyang B district, he had no breathing room to focus on directing the nationwide campaign.

Others likely to be blamed include Park Ji-hyun and Yun Ho-jung, who were accused by candidates of throwing cold water on their campaigns with the public frictions displayed by their interim leadership of the party in the late stages of campaigning.

“In comparison with the [PPP] candidates, our candidates for the metropolitan city mayor and provincial governor races weren’t as vulnerable to character charges,” a second-term Democratic Party lawmaker told the Hankyoreh.

“But you have to wonder whether the party leadership did anything right in this election. Everything from the campaigning to the leadership’s decision-making was a disaster,” they added.

At a party emergency leadership committee meeting Thursday morning, the day after the election, the Democratic Party’s leadership resigned en masse. The party constitution and rules hand the reins to floor leader Park Hong-geun, who would serve as acting leader of the emergency committee until new leadership can be elected at the party’s scheduled convention in August.

One immediate focal point for discontent is likely to be the implementation of the “five reform pledges” proposed by Park and agreed upon by the emergency committee. Previously, the committee united behind a reform plan to reinvent the party as more “youthful and dynamic,” more “stringent,” and more “committed to keeping its promises.”

With its emphasis on “youth” in particular, the plan appears likely to lead to a debate over changing the generational guard, including a “graceful departure” for the party’s so-called “86 Generation” of politicians born in the 1960s who were students active in the democratization movement during the 1980s. Objections could be raised by lawmakers from that group who have their own plans for running for leadership positions at the convention.

But a party official predicted, “While the calls for the ‘86 Generation’ to step down have been little more than sloganeering to date, the party’s current crisis suggests they could gain more steam at the convention.”

An additional political source of conflict concerns who will be put in charge of the party’s reform committee. The position puts the holder in charge of directing reform efforts, which means they would also have influence over the convention dynamic.

With Lee Jae-myung seen as very likely to throw his hat into the ring for party leader at the convention, it could raise an outcry among other camps if the party’s reform committee is headed by Park Ji-hyun, who is close with him.

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter

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