Jeong Cheong-rae, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, has expressed his determination to relaunch the recently stalled ‘one vote per delegate/member’ system. During the Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly, Jeong stated, “After the Supreme Council by-election on January 11 next year, I will ask all party members once again and push forward with the 1-person-1-vote system.”
The proposal for the ‘one vote per delegate/member’ system was part of Jeong’s campaign pledge when he ran for party leader during the August party convention. This system was brought up as an agenda item at the Central Committee meeting on the 5th but failed to pass as it did not achieve a majority vote.
Jeong also mentioned that the party’s rules for the June 3 local election nominations were passed at the party executive meeting the day before. “The most significant feature of these nomination rules is that the nomination rights are returned to the party members. We aim to achieve electoral revolution through nomination reform,” he added.
He emphasized that “in the first preliminary nomination, 100% of the nominations will be exercised by party members,” and vowed to open an era of member sovereignty that aligns with the era of national sovereignty.
Furthermore, Jeong acknowledged that while the local election nomination rules greatly expand the rights of party members, underscoring that the party’s ownership lies with its members, the one-vote system was not enacted due to insufficient votes. He expressed hope that the Supreme Council by-election would reignite discussions and lead to vibrant debates on the one-vote issue.