Agreement reached after meeting between Song Eon-seog, Kim Do-eup, Seong Il-jong and Jeong Jeom-sik

One-day delay seen as compromise over allegations of favoritism toward specific candidate

People Power Party lawmakers Kim Do-eup (from left), Seong Il-jong and Jeong Jeom-sik, all candidates in the upcoming floor leader election. [Yonhap]
People Power Party lawmakers Kim Do-eup (from left), Seong Il-jong and Jeong Jeom-sik, all candidates in the upcoming floor leader election. [Yonhap]

The People Power Party will hold its floor leader election on Wednesday, one day later than originally planned, after accepting internal criticism that the schedule had been set too hastily.

Former floor leader Song Eon-seog met Sunday afternoon at his National Assembly office with the three candidates — Rep. Kim Do-eup (four-term, Busan Gangseo), Rep. Seong Il-jong (three-term, South Chungcheong Province's Seosan and Taean-gun) and Rep. Jeong Jeom-sik (three-term, South Gyeongsang Province's Tongyeong and Goseong-gun) — and agreed to push the vote back to 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Seong said the group had agreed to delay the floor leader election by one day, setting it for 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The dispute traces back to Friday, June 5. The PPP announced a plan to hold the election on Monday — the same day Song declared his resignation. The following day, Saturday, party leader Jang Dong-hyeok posted a public notice setting a candidate registration deadline of 5 p.m. Sunday. Less than a day had passed between Song's resignation announcement and the formal election notice.

Within the party, suspicions emerged that the leadership had deliberately set an accelerated timeline to favor Jeong, who is aligned with the party's established mainstream faction. The reformist group "Alternative and Future" publicly criticized the move on Friday, saying the process would inevitably invite accusations that "certain forces colluded behind closed doors to install a specific candidate." Seong had also requested that the election be pushed back to either June 11 or June 12.

All three candidates completed their registration Sunday. With the agreement in place, the controversy over the election schedule appears to have been put to rest for now.

Whether to allow mobile voting remains an open question. Seong said the party's constitution had not previously applied mobile voting to floor leader elections, but that the candidates had requested it be considered so that lawmakers on overseas trips could also cast ballots. "This would allow all 110 members of our party to participate in choosing the leadership," he said.


psj@heraldcorp.com