If you don't like the party leader, you can criticize them publicly. You can also demand improvements to the election committee system. You can point out failures in the party's strategy. To the right is Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk. [Photo=Yonhap News] 

The People Power Party candidates are running a strange election campaign. 

An election is about reaching out to voters, yet some candidates are issuing ultimatums to their own party first. They are delaying their application for nomination, halting their campaign schedules, and now even making candidate registration conditional. 

If they dislike the party leader, they shake up the election; if they dislike the nomination process, they hold their candidacy hostage. 

This is not a sign of crisis awareness. It is a retreat from responsible politics.

Joo Kwang-deok, an aspirant for Namyangju Mayor, demanded on the 11th that Jang Dong-hyuk, the chairman of the People Power Party, step down to a secondary role. He also stated that if his demand is not met, he will not register as a candidate for the June 3rd local elections. 

Joo Kwang-deok was already the sole nominee for the People Power Party's Namyangju mayoral candidate on March 18th. The legal candidate registration period is from May 14th to 15th. After receiving the nomination and campaigning as a People Power Party candidate for nearly two months, he has now set the party leader's resignation as a condition for registration, just three days before the deadline. 

This is beyond common sense. 

One can deem Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk's remarks at the foreign press conference inappropriate. The party leader's political judgment, election strategy, and stance on martial law remarks are all subject to criticism. 

However, criticism and blackmail are different. 

If you dislike the party leader, you can criticize them publicly. You can also demand improvements to the election committee system. You can point out failures in the party's strategy. 

However, the moment a nominated candidate says, "I will not register if the chairman does not step down," it becomes not criticism, but blackmail-like pressure. 

Furthermore, Joo Kwang-deok is not a political novice. 

He is a former prosecutor, served as a member of the 18th and 20th National Assembly, was a political secretary in the Presidential Secretariat under the Park Geun-hye administration, served as the Gyeonggi Province Chairman of the Liberty Korea Party, and is the current Mayor of Namyangju City. 

He is not someone who would be unaware of the significance of nomination, the weight of candidate registration, or the repercussions of public defiance just before an election. 

Therefore, this action is not a mistake but a choice. And that choice prioritized pressuring the party leadership over responsibility to the voters. 

This is not the first time such a scene has unfolded within the People Power Party. 

Oh Se-hoon, the Mayor of Seoul, demanded the formation of an innovative election committee during the nomination application phase for the Seoul mayoral candidate, raising the issue of Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk stepping down. 

Kim Tae-heum, the Governor of Chungnam, protested the possibility of former Presidential Chief of Staff Chung Jin-suk being nominated for the bye-election in Gongju, Buyeo, and Cheongyang, and indefinitely postponed his resignation from the governorship and his preliminary candidate registration. 

This time, Joo Kwang-deok suggested withholding candidate registration just before the legal deadline, demanding Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk's resignation. 

The stages of these three incidents are different. 

Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul, exerted pressure during the nomination application phase. Kim Tae-heum, Governor of Chungnam, halted his campaign schedule in protest of the nomination landscape. Joo Kwang-deok, after already receiving the nomination, hinted at refusing registration as the candidate registration deadline approached. 

Therefore, Joo Kwang-deok's case is more serious. 

He received the party's nomination. He stepped forward to run in the election under the party's name. Even so, he linked candidate registration to the party leader's tenure. He received the nomination and then held the registration hostage. 

Why is this happening? 

On the surface, Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk's remarks at the foreign press conference are cited as the reason. However, that alone cannot fully explain the declaration of refusal to register as a candidate. 

Beneath it lies a mixture of anxiety about the election prospects, efforts to distance themselves from responsibility for defeat, power struggles within the party, and the candidate's personal effort to boost their political value. 

Because they fear losing, they are preemptively dividing responsibility; because they don't see a path to victory, they are calling for a change of leadership; and as the party is shaken, they are creating an escape route to distance themselves from that responsibility. 

The opponent in the Namyangju mayoral race is Choi Hyun-deok, the former Vice Mayor of Namyangju. The Democratic Party of Korea's Gyeonggi Province chapter recommended Choi Hyun-deok as the Namyangju mayoral candidate on April 24th, thus finalizing the main election as a head-to-head contest between candidates Choi Hyun-deok and Joo Kwang-deok. 

Namyangju is an area where new town developments like Wangsuk 1 & 2 Districts and Jinjeop 2 District, along with metropolitan transportation networks and the potential for a special city of one million people, are intertwined. 

In an election like this, the contest should focus on the continuity of city administration versus the argument for administrative change, and the competition between urban vision and living infrastructure. 

Based solely on public opinion polls, it is difficult to definitively conclude that Joo Kwang-deok is unilaterally trailing. 

In a poll conducted by Jungbup Ilbo and Daily Research in March, Joo Kwang-deok ranked first with 25.1% in suitability for the next Namyangju mayor. However, at that time, the Democratic Party candidate had not yet been confirmed. 

After Choi Hyun-deok, the former vice mayor, was confirmed as the Democratic Party candidate, the election landscape was reorganized into incumbent mayor versus former vice mayor, and continuity of city administration versus administrative change. 

Joo Kwang-deok's hint of refusing candidate registration has become a scene that has overshadowed this precarious main election landscape with internal party conflict. 

An election is a process where candidates face the public and are judged. 

The qualifications of the party leader can be criticized extensively. However, that criticism should not be twisted into a threat of refusing candidate registration. 

Saying they will not register as a candidate is not just pressure directed at the party leader. It is an act of holding the rights of voters, who will choose and judge them, hostage. 

Therefore, this issue is not simply an internal conflict, but a fundamental issue of the candidate's attitude towards the election. 

Joo Kwang-deok stated that it was "not internal infighting." 

However, in politics, the method is more important than words. The method of shaking the registration of a candidate nominated by the party while claiming to worry about the party lacks persuasion. 

The method of a candidate who must stand before voters setting conditions for the party leader while talking about conservative unity is not unity, but a repetition of division. 

What a candidate must do is not issue ultimatums to the party leader. It is to explain to the citizens of Namyangju why they should be chosen again. 

Local elections are not about questioning the whereabouts of the central party leader. 

They are elections to select administrative heads for each region. A Seoul mayoral candidate must run with Seoul citizens in mind, a Chungnam gubernatorial candidate must run with Chungnam residents in mind, and a Namyangju mayoral candidate must run with Namyangju citizens in mind. 

Yet, candidates are looking at the party leader before looking at the voters. While speaking of the difficulties in the election campaign, instead of persuading voters, they resort to the language of internal power struggles. This is indeed another face of the crisis facing the People Power Party. 

This does not mean that Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk has no issues. 

If Jang's remarks have put a burden on the candidates, that responsibility must also be examined. The party leader is in a position of responsibility for the entire election. They must be more cautious if a single remark affects the candidates' election campaigns. 

However, the party leader's shortcomings cannot be an excuse for refusing candidate registration. The leader's deficiencies do not grant the candidate the right to shake the process of standing before voters. 

If the party is in difficulty, the candidate must run even harder. If the party leader is disagreeable, the candidate must persuade voters with a clearer regional vision. If they judge that the leadership is unstable, the candidate must fill that void with their own competitiveness. 

That is the responsibility of a candidate who has received a nomination. 

A nomination is a certificate that borrows the party's name. The moment a candidate uses that nomination to pressure the party, they begin to be doubted for their eligibility to stand before the voters. 

It is almost pitiful for the voters that the people engaging in such an unprincipled political struggle are candidates who are stepping forward to take responsibility for local government. 

Refusing candidate registration is not a decisive move. It is a low-level judgment that holds the public hostage. 

An election is not a bargaining chip aimed at the party leader. It is a place where candidates face the public and are judged. What can voters entrust to a candidate who has forgotten this fundamental principle?