People Power Party Representative Jang Dong-hyeok [Yonhap News]

The leadership of the People Power Party under Representative Jang Dong-hyeok decided to postpone a plan to force the collective resignation of all party council chairpersons—including incumbent lawmakers—ahead of the expiration of their terms at the end of this month, and subsequently re-elect them through party member votes.

Despite holding a re-convened Supreme Council meeting in the afternoon to gather further input from lawmakers—following heated debates at the morning session and public objections raised during the subsequent general meeting of lawmakers—the leadership ultimately chose to take a step back.

However, many still expect that the agenda will likely be approved at next week’s Supreme Council meeting.

Chief Spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon met with reporters after the Supreme Council meeting, which concluded at 6 p.m. that day, and stated, "We have decided to postpone the decision regarding the regular election of party council chairpersons," adding, "Once the results of the lawmakers' general meeting are shared with the Supreme Council, the Supreme Council members will deliberate further and continue discussions until the next meeting."

She added, "It has not been definitively decided whether we will make a final decision or continue discussions at the next Supreme Council meeting."

Explaining why the decision was deferred, Chief Spokesperson Choi said, "While the decisions made at the general meeting of lawmakers are not legally binding on the Supreme Council, we believe that the content of those discussions will be shared and serve as a reference for Supreme Council members to deliberate upon."

She further noted, "There were no objections to postponing the decision and continuing the discussion until the next Supreme Council meeting."

Initially, the leadership had intended to approve the agenda during the day’s Supreme Council meeting, but it was met with over an hour of intense debate starting from the closed-door morning session.

Representative Jang and the pro-leadership faction maintained that a system should be introduced requiring a re-election of all 254 party council chairpersons via party member votes, essentially in the form of a primary. It is understood that they had planned to vote on the motion after confirming the stance of each Supreme Council member.

However, the vote was delayed after Floor Leader Choo Kyung-ho and some non-pro-leadership Supreme Council members raised concerns, arguing that "there is no precedent for vacating all party councils at once to hold re-elections via member votes, and doing so could be procedurally problematic."

Furthermore, during the closed-door general meeting of lawmakers that followed the Supreme Council session, some lawmakers pointed out that "a total re-election of party council chairpersons should not be decided solely by the Supreme Council without gathering input through the general meeting." This led to the failure to reach a decision even at the reconvened afternoon Supreme Council session.

Nevertheless, given that Representative Jang and the pro-leadership Supreme Council members have reached a consensus on the necessity of this plan, speculation remains that the agenda will eventually be approved at next week's meeting.

This is because, throughout the two closed-door Supreme Council meetings, it became clear that, with the exception of Floor Leader Choo Kyung-ho and Youth Supreme Council member Woo Jae-jun, most voting members were generally in favor of the proposal.

A party official told Yonhap News, "The leadership, including Representative Jang, postponed the decision with the intention that 'the conclusion seems all but set, so we can wait to see the results of the general meeting of lawmakers and reach a final decision at the next Supreme Council meeting,'" adding, "Since the current terms expire at the end of this month, it won't take long to reach a conclusion."