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Lee Jae-myung greets the crowd at a Democratic Party conference held at Olympic Park in Seoul on Aug. 28. (pool photo)

Former presidential hopeful and current National Assembly member Lee Jae-myung was elected as the new leader of the Democratic Party on Sunday.

Five months removed from his loss in the March 9 presidential election, Lee is now the face of the top opposition party, which holds 169 seats in the National Assembly. Now he faces the task of unifying and reforming a party divided into his supporters and non-supporters as he attempts to steer the ship toward victory in the 2024 general elections.

He is also confronted with various legal challenges, including an investigation into allegations surrounding real estate in the Seongnam neighborhood of Daejang.

In a national convention held at the Olympics Gymnastics Arena in Seoul on Sunday, Lee received a final tally of 77.77%, putting him in first place well ahead of his competitor, lawmaker Park Yong-jin, who earned 22.23%. The Democratic Party based its selection on the results of voting by qualified party members (40%), voting by representatives (30%), opinion surveys of the general public (25%), and opinion surveys of ordinary party members (5%).

Lee’s final total was the highest ever received for a candidate in a Democratic Party presidential nomination or party leadership race. With party leaders serving for a two-year term, Lee will be at the helm as the party enters the 2024 general elections 19 months from now.

In his acceptance speech, Lee said he planned to “approach this as a do-or-die endeavor, meaning that Lee Jae-myung’s historical mission comes to an end if I fail at the momentous task of laying the groundwork for returning to power.”

He added that he would “commit fully to creating an utterly new Democratic Party.”

Five members of the National Assembly were elected to the supreme council, where they will be leading the party alongside Lee. Jeong Cheong-rae was elected with 25.2% of the vote, followed by Ko Min-jung with 19.33%, Park Chan-dae with 14.2%, Seo Young-kyo with 14.19%, and Jang Kyung-tae with 12.39%. Apart from Ko, who is considered a member of the party’s Moon Jae-in wing, the other four are all counted as part of Lee’s wing.

For the first item on his schedule after his inauguration as party leader, Lee planned to pay a visit to Moon Jae-in Monday in Pyeongsan, a community in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, where the former president currently lives. Lee’s move is being interpreted as a bid to emphasize party unity.

By Shim Wu-sam, staff reporter

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