Democratic Party of Korea leadership candidate Kim Min-seok topped the regional primary in Gangwon Province and the Daegu-North Gyeongsang Province (TK) area, edging out rival Jung Chung-rae. The win gave Kim consecutive first-place finishes in the second week of regional voting — following a victory on Saturday — but the cumulative gap between the two candidates stands at just 1.48 percentage points, keeping the race extremely tight.
The Democratic Party's central National Election Commission held joint campaign speeches in Gangwon Province and then Daegu on Sunday before announcing the rights-member vote results for both regions.
Combined across Gangwon Province and the TK area, Kim received 48.54 percent of the vote, outpacing Jung's 44.40 percent by 4.14 percentage points. Candidate Song Young-gil received 7.06 percent.
Kim had also led the Jeju and Incheon regional primary on Saturday, taking 47.75 percent against Jung's 42.08 percent — a margin of 5.67 percentage points. The back-to-back wins gave Kim first place on both days of the second week of regional voting.
However, the consecutive regional victories have not translated into a commanding overall lead. Excluding the weighting for South Gyeongsang Province, Kim's cumulative vote share stands at 46.01 percent against Jung's 44.53 percent — a gap of just 1.48 percentage points.
The two candidates also split wins during the first week of regional voting. Kim led in the Chungcheong region, while Jung came out ahead in the Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province round.
The primary is being held to elect the party's next leader at the Democratic Party's Aug. 17 national convention. In the regional rounds, rights-member vote results are released first; the final leadership vote will be determined 70 percent by delegate and rights-member ballots and 30 percent by a public opinion survey.
The delegate vote will be held online on Aug. 17, and the public poll will run Saturday through Sunday. After the regional primaries conclude, the final party leader will be chosen at the national convention in Daejeon on the 17th, where delegate and public vote results will be combined.
The leadership race uses a preferential voting system. If no candidate secures a majority in the overall count, the second-choice votes of those who selected the last-place candidate are redistributed to the remaining candidates until one achieves a majority.
kacew@heraldcorp.com
