Results of GNP Election For Party Chairmanship Will Be Announced Tomorrow

About 227,000 delegates of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) went to the polls on Tuesday. Across the nation, 281 voting booths opened in district party chapters.

Six candidates - Choe Byung-yul, Kang Jae-sup, Kim Hyung-o, Kim Deog-ryong, Suh Chung-won, and Lee Jae-oh – ran for the party chairmanship and campaigned for 13 days. However, towards the end, the elections in effect, turned into a two-way competition between Choe Byung-yul and Suh Chung-won.

As of 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, voter turnout was 53.4% among delegates from all GNP district party chapters. The opposition party expected the total turnout to reach close to 60%.

By region, North Gyeongsang Province recorded the highest turnout at 83.4%, followed by South Gyeongsang Province at 67%, Daegu at 66.8%, North Jeolla Province at 63.7% and Busan at 62.5%.

Along with the election for party leadership, there were elections to appoint steering committee members representing regions to replace the current party executive members in seven cities and provinces including Busan, Daegu, and Gwangju. In other areas, all candidates became steering committee members without a vote because the number of candidates was the same as that of the steering committee members.

Votes will be counted electronically at GNP National Headquarters at Jamsil Stadium on Thursday. The result is expected to come out around 2 to 3 p.m. on that day. The counting of the votes for steering committee members will start on Wednesday.

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com