DPK leader heads to Honam region to support its candidates for upcoming by-election

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of Democratic Party of Korea (left), moves with Lee Hae-sik, chief secretary of the party\'s leader, to attend a meeting at the National Assembly on September 22. Yonhap News

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), will begin to support the party’s candidates in the upcoming by-election which will be held on October 16. Competition for the by-election is intensifying as Lee jumped into the field following Cho Kuk, the leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, who said he would stay in the Honam region during October to support election campaigns of the party’s candidates.

On September 23, Lee will preside over a supreme committee meeting in Yeonggwang, South Jeolla Province, and hold a policy agreement ceremony with Jang Se-il, who is running for Governor of Yeonggwang-gun and Cho Sang-rae, who is running for Governor of Gokseong-gun. On the 24th, Lee will listen to the people's opinions in Gokseong, South Jeolla Province. On the 25th, he will travel to Busan to support candidate Kim Kyung-ji, who is running for Head of Geumjeong-gu. Lee had originally planned to visit Ganghwa, Incheon, on the 21st with the floor leader Park Chan-dae to support the election campaign of Governor of Ganghwa-gun, but the trip was canceled due to heavy rain damage.

Busan’s Geumjeong-gu and Incheon’s Ganghwa, where the by-election are being held, are considered vulnerable areas for opposition parties, including the DPK. For this reason, the DPK is expected to compete fiercely in Yeonggwang and Gokseong with the Rebuilding Korea Party, which has a strong traditional support base there.

Cho has been staying in the Honam area since the 13th, and DPK lawmakers have also moved to the region to join the election campaign. According to Hwang Myung-sun, head of the DPK’s support team for the October by-election, top committee member Han Joon-ho, whose hometown is Honam, and Park Ji-won, a five-term lawmaker whose district includes Haenam, Wando and Jindo in South Jeolla Province, have begun a month-long stay in the Honam region.

The DPK has been holding the Rebuilding Korea Party in check. Kim Min-seok, a senior member of the DPK’s supreme council, said on his social media account on the 22nd, "The act of being absent from the resolution of national concerns at the National Assembly at a critical time of the country should be severely criticized," while pointing out the absence of lawmakers from the Rebuilding Korea Party who went down to the Honam region instead of participating in the plenary session for the vote of the Special Counsel Investigation Act on Marine Corps Corporal Chae.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, as of August this year, Yeonggwang had a population of around 51,000 and Gokseong around 27,000. The reason why the main opposition party, which holds 170 seats in the National Assembly, is focusing on such a small-scale local election is that it has a significant meaning.

The October re-election is the first election since the general election to test public sentiment in local areas and is also a prelude to the local election in 2026. It will also be the first time that the DPK and the Rebuilding Korea Party, which had a win-win relationship during the last general election, will face off in local areas. For the DPK, it is the first election since Lee’s second term as the party leader.

The DPK leadership's decision to go all-out is also based on the judgment that public sentiment in local areas is not favorable to the party. According to a poll conducted by Realmeter and released on September 12, the DPK and the Rebuilding Korea Party are in a dead heat, with neither side able to claim victory in the by-election.

Jang Hyun of the Rebuilding Korea Party accounted for 30.3 percent and Jang Sae-il of the DPK accounted for 29.8 percent. In the same survey, the party's approval rating was 37.3 percent for the DPK and 34.3 percent for the Rebuilding Korea Party, ranking first and second within the margin of error. The sampling error is ±4.4 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level, and for more information, refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.

A DPK official said, “The Rebuilding Korea Party has been going all-in for a month, and the DPK’s local committees are now joining election campaigns one after another. It's not that difficult to win.” On the other hand, an official of the Rebuilding Korea Party said, "In the meantime, people in the Honam area had no choice but to vote for the DPK even if they didn't like it, but this is the first time that a party that will not betray the public opinions in Honam has come out. There are many local residents who think it is a way to give a chance to a party that can keep the DPK awake."

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.