Kim Yong, a candidate in the Supreme Council member election at the Democratic Party of Korea's Aug. 17 national convention, criticized candidates aligned with party leader hopeful Jung Chung-rae, saying their coordinated voting push amounted to "factional sovereignty, not member sovereignty." The criticism came as competition for the fifth and final winning seat on the Supreme Council intensified, with tensions over strategic voting sharpening among candidates.
Speaking on KBS Radio on Thursday, Kim took aim at Choi Min-hee, Han Min-su and Lee Sung-yoon — three Supreme Council candidates seen as close to Jung — saying their vote tallies closely mirrored Jung's own support figures. "Jung's approval rating and vote share, and the vote shares of the three members of Team Jung Chung-rae, are nearly identical," he said.
Kim argued that Jung had long championed the principle of one member, one vote and member sovereignty, yet was now undermining it. "At the very convention where members' choices should be guaranteed, there has been a campaign from the very start telling people to skip Choi Min-hee based on odd or even birth years and vote for Han Min-su and Lee Sung-yoon instead," he said.
"How is that member sovereignty? That is factional sovereignty," Kim said. He added that the only way to counter such organized campaigning was to drive up voter turnout, but lamented that participation had been disappointingly low.
Kim also raised concerns about the format of the Supreme Council primary. "Candidates should present their platforms before voting takes place, but right now all the voting is done first and the platform presentations come at the very end on the final weekend," he said. "With voters in the dark and no way to know the candidates' positions or visions, it is inevitable that turnout falls."
Currently holding fifth place — the last winning position — Kim played up his status as a non-incumbent rank-and-file party member. "Realistically, because I am not in the Assembly, many rights-holding members do not know me well," he said. "I care less about my ranking and just want to get in. Whether it is fifth or fourth, I just hope to be given the chance to work."
He also took a swipe at Lee Sung-yoon, who is chasing him from sixth place and whose constituency is in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. "There is a lot of Honam marketing going on, but if you start weighing all those considerations you end up doing nothing," Kim said, adding that he intended to serve as "a spokesperson for rank-and-file members."
Turning to the remaining Honam primaries, Kim said the public sentiment he had picked up while traveling the region before the local elections was "overwhelmingly" that Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, who delivered results alongside President Lee Jae Myung, was the better fit over former party leader Jung. "If that sentiment materializes in Honam, I cautiously predict that winning more than half the vote may be possible," he said.
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