The national party headquarters of the People Power Party with its sign removed [Yonhap News] 

The People Power Party has narrowed down its new party name candidates to two and plans to finalize the selection by this weekend at the earliest.

Multiple attendees stated that Party Leader Jang Dong-hyuk made this decision during a meeting held on the afternoon of the 18th at the National Assembly with Floor Leader Song Eon-seok, Policy Committee Chairman Chung Jeong-sik, and Secretary-General Chung Hee-yong.

During the meeting, Representative Seo Ji-young, the party's public relations director, and former lawmaker Kim Soo-min, who leads the party's brand strategy task force (TF), reported on two selected candidates from those gathered through a public contest.

It is reported that Party Leader Jang did not offer any specific opinions after receiving the report on the candidate pool.

An attendee explained that the party plans to comprehensively assess and refine the party logo and symbolic colors after the new party name has been decided.

The People Power Party plans to present the revised party name proposal to the Supreme Council meeting early next week and will also gather opinions at the National Assembly members' meeting.

Consideration is also being given to expediting the decision-making process, such as potentially moving the Supreme Council meeting scheduled for next week to this weekend as an emergency session.

Once the final candidates are selected through this process, the new party name is expected to be confirmed after resolutions by the Standing National Committee and the National Committee.

However, concerns have been raised among lawmakers that revising the party name just over three months before the June 3rd local elections would leave insufficient time for voters to recognize the new name, and it would also impose a significant financial burden as candidates would need to replace the attire of their election campaign staff, among other items.

Park Sung-hoon, the chief spokesperson, told reporters at the National Assembly today, "One of the ways we are concretely demonstrating our efforts to expand the party's reach is through a party name revision." He added, "Since the opinion that a party name revision is necessary has already surpassed half in a nationwide party member vote, it is difficult to reverse that decision."

He continued, "We plan to finalize the party name next week and show the public the changed image of the party through banners on March 1st."

The People Power Party conducted an ARS (Automatic Response System) survey from February 9th to 11th, asking about their opinions on revising the party name among approximately 774,000 core party members. Out of the 25.24% who responded, over 133,000 members (68.19%) expressed their agreement to revise the party name.

Subsequently, a public contest was held for core party members and the general public, receiving over 35,000 ideas. On the 13th, the party name and logo on the sign at the central party headquarters in Yeouido were removed.

If the party name change is confirmed to take effect on March 1st, the party name 'People Power Party,' which was adopted in early September 2020, will disappear into history after approximately 5 years and 6 months.