Joint meeting of the People Power Party's Local Election Planning Committee and Metropolitan Mayors. Yonhap News

The People Power Party has indicated its intention to proceed with the plan to increase the proportion of party sentiment reflection in local election primaries from the current 50% to 70%.

Choi Ji-yeon, spokesperson for the party's Local Election General Planning Committee, stated on the 25th, after a joint meeting with incumbent mayors and district heads, "Our stance on the 7:3 ratio (70% party member votes to 30% public opinion polls) is clear," in response to a question asking if there was any change to the proposal to recommend increasing the party sentiment reflection ratio to 70%.

Choi emphasized, "While this local election must reflect public sentiment and popular will as much as possible, it also faces the challenge of expanding our weak party base. Strengthening the party's roots is also a major task for this election."

Regarding the criticism that increasing the party sentiment reflection ratio is inappropriate given that Planning Committee Chair Na Kyung-won is being mentioned as a candidate for Seoul mayor, Choi dismissed it, saying, "It is unthinkable to set rules based on any individual."

Furthermore, in response to the suggestion that the 7:3 primary rule favors a specific individual within the planning committee, Choi stated, "Reflecting a large portion of general public opinion also has its drawbacks. The results of past elections have shown that candidates with high name recognition tend to score high when public opinion is favorable to them." He added, "Efforts must be made to strengthen contributions to the party and increase the proportion of party members, ultimately leading to enhanced competitiveness."

It was reported that some mayors of lower-level autonomous districts mentioned the Democratic Party's strengthening of its rights-holding members as a case study to learn from, and expressed opinions that the proportion reflecting popular will should be further increased.

Meanwhile, at the meeting, the planning committee decided to recommend a plan to the party leadership to make it mandatory for each party chapter to nominate at least one young person for recruitment.

Yonhap News