‘We need second and third Ha Tae-keung,’ says the ruling party

The political circle is stirring with the announcement made by Ha Tae-keung, a three-time legislator of the People Power Party, to run in Seoul in next year’s general elections. Some members of the party, including unelected leaders and first-time legislators, are publicly calling for the party’s prominent figures to run for offices in Seoul and nearby regions while others are opposing it by referring to the failed cases of the party’s leading figures who ran for tough offices in the 2020 general elections. The first-time elected hardliners and pro-Lee Jae-myung unelected members of the opposition party are calling for a restriction on running for the same constituencies three times, which was met with opposition from the party’s influential figures, saying that that can’t be a solution.

The unelected leadership and the newly-elected members of the ruling party are calling for its leading figures to declare candidacy for offices in Seoul and nearby regions, with Ha’s announcement to run for Seoul. “Ha made an appropriate decision at the right time,” Kim Byung-min, a People Power Party’s Supreme Council member, said at an SBS radio program on Monday. “More people will step forward to sacrifice themselves for the party.” “If there is a higher level of shared understanding for the need to transform nomination in the upcoming general elections, we will see more people like Ha,” Jang Dong-hyuk, the floor spokesperson of the party and a newly-elected legislator, also said at an MBC radio on the same day. “It is necessary for competitive prominent members of the party to run for offices in Seoul and nearby regions,” said a ruling party member.

With Ha’s announcement, even the presidential office is paying attention to whether to transfer the influential members of the party, who were elected multiple times in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province and Busan and South Gyeongsang Province, to Seoul and nearby regions. It is to support an argument to transform nomination before the next year’s presidential election and give opportunities for the members of the presidential office who aim to run for offices in Gyeongsang Province. It is believed that the members of the presidential office will be able to take the empty constituencies if the historically influential figures in Gyeongsang Province give up their constituencies and run for offices in Seoul and nearby regions.

Meanwhile, some ruling party members are calling for a more delicate approach by referring to the failure of the 21st general elections. During the 21st general elections held in April 2020, the Future Korea Party, the predecessor of the People Power Party, boldly transferred active elected members to tougher constituencies or cut them off. As a result, most transferred members lost in the general elections, and those who opposed the cut-off ran for office as independents. “Transfers should be made in consideration of each member’s competitiveness and the characters of constituencies,” said a ruling party member. “We should not make the mistake of giving away the constituencies where the ruling party has a stronghold to the opposition party due to internal conflicts within the party.”


Jun-Il Kim jikim@donga.com