Yoon stalwart Kim Gi-hyeon wins PPP race amid allegations

Politics

Published: 08 Mar. 2023, 17:54 Updated: 08 Mar. 2023, 18:12

Yoon stalwart Kim Gi-hyeon wins PPP race amid allegations

Newly elected People Power Party (PPP) Chairman Kim Gi-hyeon raises his hands in celebration following the announcement that he had won the party's leadership contest at the PPP national convention at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Goyang, Gyeonggi on Wednesday afternoon. [NEWS1]

The conservative People Power Party (PPP) declared Wednesday that four-term lawmaker Kim Gi-hyeon won its leadership race at the party's national convention amid allegations of improper support from presidential officials for his bid.

Kim clinched a majority of 52.93 percent out of a total of 463,300 ballots cast by PPP members.

His nearest rival, Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, garnered 23.37 percent of the vote, while other candidates Chun Ha-ram and former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn attracted 14.98 and 8.72 percent of the vote, respectively.

Cumulative turnout over the four-day voting period that ended on Tuesday hit 55.1 percent — an all-time high for a leadership contest of a major Korean conservative party.

Results of the leadership vote were announced just past 5:00 p.m. during the party’s national convention at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Goyang, just north of Seoul, with President Yoon Suk Yeol in attendance.

Yoon’s appearance marks the first time in seven years that a sitting president has attended a party convention.

Kim, a longtime conservative lawmaker who has represented Ulsan’s South 2nd constituency almost continuously since 2004, pledged to unify the party, tackle the country’s economic challenges and work in close cooperation with the president ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.

“We will race towards achieving our singular goal, which is first and foremost looking after people’s livelihoods,” the newly elected PPP leader said, while also pledging that he would dedicate himself “wholly” to “ensuring that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration succeeds” and that the party “wins next year’s parliamentary elections.”

Kim’s election as the new PPP leader fills a months-long vacancy at the top of the party, which has mostly been run by an emergency steering committee since former chairman Lee Jun-seok was formally ousted as leader last August.

Lee was handed a six-month suspension from the party in July over allegations that he accepted sexual services as a bribe and attempted a cover-up.

He was slapped with an additional year-long suspension in October after he stepped up criticism of party leaders and Yoon, whom he likened to the singunbu — a term that refers to military officers led by former President Chun Doo-hwan, who came to power through a coup d’etat and suppressed democracy movements.

PPP members who previously sided with Lee were unsuccessful in their bids for election to the party’s executive council, which saw Kim Jae-won, Kim Byeong-jin, Cho Su-jin and Thae Yong-ho elected instead.

Yoon loyalist and former PPP lawmaker Chang Je-won was elected as the party’s youth representative.

However, it remains to be seen if the PPP will coalesce around Kim — and by extension Yoon — following Kim’s victory.

Ahn, Kim’s main rival for the party leadership post, as well as Hwang have filed criminal complaints against Kang Seung-kyoo, the senior presidential secretary for civil society, alleging that unnamed officials under Kang committed election interference and abuse of authority by campaigning for Kim.

Officials in Kang’s office are suspected of openly campaigning for Kim — who was widely believed to be President Yoon’s preferred candidate for the party leadership post — and disparaged Ahn in at least two group chats with PPP members.

The allegations of election interference by presidential aides could portend more internal turmoil for the PPP.

As the next PPP chairman, Kim is expected to lead the party through next year’s parliamentary elections, where the PPP will seek to gain a majority in the National Assembly, currently dominated by the rival Democratic Party, to empower President Yoon’s policy agenda.

President Yoon Suk Yeol greets People Power Party members at the party's national convention on Wednesday afternoon. [YONHAP]

Yoon also called on party members to join him in “acting forcefully” to tackle what he characterized as the country’s “vested interests,” referring to trade unions, and support his foreign policy agenda of strengthening security cooperation with the United States and Japan against North Korea’s escalating nuclear and missile threats.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]