Han Dong-hoon’s ‘mouth risk’ is ‘a big deal’? Will the ruling party go to the final round?

The mobile voting for party members at the July 23rd National Convention to elect the next People Power Party leader closed on the 20th. With the ‘mouth risk’ of party leader candidate Han Dong-hoon, who has been forming the mainstream theory, emerging as a last-minute variable, attention is focused on the possibility of a runoff election in the event that no candidate receives a majority of votes.

The People Power Party’s 4th National Convention Election Commission announced that 346,115 out of 841,614 party member electors participated in the vote as of 5 p.m. on the same day after the mobile voting closed. As of that day, the voter turnout was 40.47%, which is 7.04% lower than the 47.51% mobile voter turnout at the March 8 National Convention last year.

Initially, a high voter turnout was expected due to the success of the ‘glorious lineup’ of candidates Han Dong-hoon, Na Kyung-won, Won Hee-ryong, and Yoon Sang-hyun, but as the candidates continued to slander and expose each other to the point of using the term ‘suicide squadron,’ there are observations that the number of party members who gave up or postponed their vote may have increased.

For the party member electors who did not participate in the mobile vote, ARS voting will be conducted on the 21st and 22nd. A general public opinion poll will also be conducted during this period. The voting rate, which reflects 80% of the party member vote and 20% of the general public opinion poll, will be announced at the party convention on the 23rd. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, a runoff election will be held on the 28th to confirm the next party leader election.

The focus is on whether candidate Han, who has been in first place in various opinion polls throughout the entire election period to the point where people say, “The leader is Han Dong-hoon anyway” (어대한), will win a majority of the votes. Within the party, there are mixed opinions on the influence of the controversy that began when candidate Han revealed, “When I was the Minister of Justice, candidate Na requested the cancellation of the Fast Track case.” The “Fast Track case” is the incident in which 27 lawmakers and party officials, including candidate Na (then Liberty Korea Party floor leader), were indicted in April 2019 for trying to block the Democratic Party from putting the Public Prosecutor’s Office Act and the election law amendment on the fast track.

A party official said, “It was a big mistake to touch on the party’s sore spot. I wonder if candidate Han really knew about the fast-track incident and spoke about it,” adding, “It’s natural that the votes will drop, and if he fails to surpass 50%, he could end up in a runoff.” On the other hand, a People Power Party lawmaker close to candidate Han said, “It would have been better if he hadn’t said (that story), but it’s hard to put much meaning into it,” adding, “It’s not unreasonable for it to end in the first round of voting.”

On this day, each candidate appealed for support and encouraged voting. The most active candidate was Candidate Han, who set a target of 65% voter turnout. Candidate Han, who has a relatively weak base within the party but high popularity, believes that a higher voter turnout will be advantageous. On the other hand, if the voter turnout is low, the influence of the party members, who are the traditional supporters, on the organization chart will increase, which could be advantageous to other candidates.

At around 3 p.m. that day, two hours before mobile voting closed, one candidate posted on Facebook, “Change and reform are always met with strong resistance from vested interests. I will not be broken. But I will unite,” and “If you can give me just one last vote, I will report on my victory in three days, on the 23rd.” At noon that day and the afternoon before mobile voting began, he urged people to vote, saying that the voter turnout was lower than at last year’s convention. When he was the emergency response committee chairman for the April 10 general election, one candidate sent a message urging real-time voting through Facebook.

The rival candidates stimulated anti-Han Dong-hoon sentiments and hit the party hard. Candidate Na said, “Candidate Han’s remarks and perceptions are exactly like the Democratic Party and the Cho Kuk Party. He is treating his comrades in the fast-track struggle as ‘criminals,’ and therefore, he is saying, ‘It’s okay to be punished. ’” He emphasized, “He is a candidate who should not have run. If you vote wrongly, there will be endless conflict in the party and there is a high risk that it will eventually split.” Candidate Won also criticized Candidate Han, saying, “Many people are deploring his despicable behavior of trying to get away on his own.”

Reporter Yoo Ji-hye keep@segye.com

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