The Democratic Party’s future top committee member candidate, Min Hyeong-bae, who is the only National Assembly member from the Honam region, is facing challenges in the race for the top committee seat in the 8·18 National Members’ Conference to select the top members of the Democratic Party. He has not been able to overcome the difficulties. There is an analysis suggesting that the official notion of ‘Honam equals the heart of the Democratic Party’ is no longer valid. In the past three congresses, the Honam ‘elected position top committee member’ has failed to enter the leadership.
According to the Democratic Party’s Central Election Management Committee on the 1st, in the cumulative vote count in the 10 regions where the primaries have been completed among the 17 regions nationwide, Min received 19,970 votes (5.99%), ranking at the bottom. The difference in vote percentage between Min and the 5th place candidate, Lee Eon-ju, who received 22,300 votes (12.15%), is 6 percentage points. On the day of the congress on the 18th, the party leader and five top committee members will be finalized through the combination of party member votes and public opinion polls.
Some argue that this situation reflects the position of the Honam region within the Democratic Party. As the only non-capital region candidate representing the Honam area, Min has yet to make a comeback. A Democratic Party member mentioned, “With Honam politicians unable to enter the central leadership recently, the representatives from Honam are disappearing in reality.” Min is aiming for a reversal in the primaries in North Jeolla, Gwangju, and South Jeolla, regions where he holds 33% of the rights. On the 28th of last month during the rounds of primaries in Chungcheong region, he also appealed, “When I finish here in Chungbuk, I’ll head to Honam, so try to turn things around over there. Please give me half of your votes.”
After the 21st National Assembly, including former lawmakers Han Byung-do from Jeonbuk and Seo Sam-seok from Jeonnam, and Song Gap-seok from Gwangju, challenged for the ‘Honam top committee member’ position, all of them faced defeat. Even in the preliminary elections for the top committee member candidates for the congress, freshman lawmaker Lee Seong-yoon from Jeonbuk was the only incumbent lawmaker to be eliminated.
Some evaluations indicate that the Honam sentiment is not favorable. In the past proportional representation elections, the Justice Party showed higher support rates in Gwangju, Jeonnam, and Jeonbuk compared to the Democratic Party. The newly established Justice Party is actively preparing for the upcoming October by-elections with the goal of achieving significant results in the Honam region.
A Democratic Party official expressed concerns, stating, “The 20s to early 40s voters in the Honam region mostly support non-Democratic parties. The Justice Party didn’t steal the Democratic Party’s pie, but rather took aim at what the Democratic Party failed to capture,” and added, “As the leadership mainly consists of individuals from the capital region, they are not sensitive to the sentiment changes in the Honam, Youngnam, and Chungcheong regions.”