Lee Hoi Chang Continues to Lead in Primaries

Candidate Lee Hoi-Chang took the lead by getting 891 votes cast (80.5 percent) in Kangwon regional primary to select presidential nominee of the Grand National Party (GNP) on April 23. The total tally of four regional primaries conducted so far, candidate Lee Hoi-Change recorded 2,809 votes, leading the distant second position candidate Choe Byoung-Ryul by 2,358 votes.

Candidate Choi took the second position with 100 votes (9.1 percent), and candidates Lee Bu-Young and Rhee Shang-Hi received 71 votes (6.4percent) and 44 votes (4.0 percent), respectively in the Kangwon primary held at Lake Stadium of Chuncheon City. The vote turnout rate was 59.7 percent, the lowest of the four regional primaries finished so far.

In other story, the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) decided to schedule ahead the Seoul regional primary, the final leg of MDP presidential nominee selection, from the original 28th of April to 27th April so that the primary can be held at the same time with the party convention for selecting party leadership.

The MDP Election Administrative Committee decided on a meeting held on April 23 that the party presidential nominee will be finally determined in Seoul regional primary to be held in Chamsil Indoor Stadium in the morning hours of April 27 since only two contenders remain, and a party chairman and eight supreme council members will be selected in the National Party Representatives Convention in the afternoon of the same day.

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com · Hyung-Kwon Pu bookum90@donga.com