DP defections mount as nominations widen factional rift

General election 2024

Published: 27 Feb. 2024, 16:56

DP defections mount as nominations widen factional rift

Rep. Ko Min-jung, a former presidential spokesperson in the Moon Jae-in administration, holds a press conference announcing she will step down as a Democratic Party (DP) supreme council member at the National Assembly in western Seoul Tuesday. [NEWS1]

A series of Democratic Party (DP) members are defecting from the liberal majority party amid a widening schism between loyalists of chief Lee Jae-myung and those who are not.

On Tuesday, Im Jong-seok, a former chief of staff for President Moon Jae-in, failed to be nominated as the DP candidate for Seoul's Jung-Seongdong district, the constituency widely considered his home turf.

This comes as the DP candidate nominations for the April 10 general elections favor figures aligned with DP Chairman Lee, increasingly alienating politicians who oppose him.

The DP's nomination committee announced it had nominated Jeon Hyun-heui, a former chairperson of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, as its candidate for Jung-Seongdong A District, blackballing Im, a former two-term lawmaker who had also applied to be nominated for the constituency which he had previously represented.

After holding a closed-door meeting earlier Tuesday to discuss the final shortlist, DP Rep. Ahn Gyu-back, a member of the nomination committee, said regarding Jeon's nomination that "there were opposing opinions, but she passed with the majority opinion."

However, the committee didn't elaborate on whether Im would be nominated for another district. This comes amid speculation that Im could be nominated as the candidate for the Songpa constituency, though the area is a conservative stronghold.

The Jung-Seongdong seat opened up after DP floor leader Hong Ihk-pyo moved his constituency to southern Seoul's Seocho B District.

The DP designated the area as a strategic constituency and said it would seek the most effective candidate to win the Jung-Seongdong seat.

Party members have closely monitored Im's nomination as it is representative of the growing rift between loyalists of former President Moon and the DP's current chief Lee and also could affect voters' sentiment, especially amid the launch of minor splinter parties offering options seeking for alternatives to the mainstream parties.

The DP's sidelining of Im comes as some party members have alleged that there is an ongoing "massacre" of lawmakers not aligned with Chairman Lee.

Im Hyug-baeg, the nomination committee chief, has said DP members who had served under the Moon administration should take some responsibility for the launch of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. Yoon served as Moon's prosecutor general, stepping down partly due to the administration's prosecution reforms, before launching his political career.

The committee argued that many lawmakers who happened to be aligned against Lee were underperformers in the lower 10 percent or 20 percent in terms of legislative activity, saying such results could prove disadvantageous when vying for seats against rival contenders.

Rep. Kim Young-joo, a four-term lawmaker and deputy National Assembly speaker, also believed to be part of the anti-Lee faction, declared her intention to leave the party after being placed in the lower 20 percent category.

Democratic Party Rep. Park Young-soon announces that he will defect from the party in a press conference at the National Assembly in western Seoul Tuesday, saying he plans to join the New Future Party led by former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon. [YONHAP]

Rep. Park Young-soon, a first-term lawmaker from Daejeon who is also not a Lee partisan, announced he was leaving the party on Tuesday in protest of being evaluated in the bottom 10 percent of active lawmakers and joining the New Future Party led by former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, who also defected from the party last month.

Rep. Ko Min-jung boycotted a meeting of the party's supreme council on Monday in protest of how it handles nominating candidates, hinting that she will also defect from the DP.

On Tuesday, Ko, a former KBS announcer who served as a spokesperson for former President Moon, said in a press conference at the National Assembly that she would step down from the supreme council as of that day.

"We should actively take steps to solve the problem rather than just standing by and ignoring the criticism over the nomination conflict and lack of strategy that has been emerging recently," she said. "Problems are being raised about fairness, such as the bottom 20 percent category and public opinion polls, and the issue of not having a general election strategy is also being repeatedly raised within our campaign."

She said the DP "leadership should take responsibility for the current crisis and have intense discussions to remove distrust and put the current conflict to rest."

Ko said she would do her best to win Seoul's Gwangjin constituency but added she didn't think the DP "would collapse just because I'm not around."

Kim Yun-sik, a former Siheung mayor, announced Tuesday that he will defect from the DP to join the conservative People Power Party (PPP), saying he could "not find a reason to protect the DP."

Kim, a local politician who joined the DP in 1992, failed to secure the DP nomination for Gyeonggi's Siheung constituency for the upcoming general elections after he was edged out by Lee loyalist Cho Jeong-sik, a fifth-term lawmaker and the DP's secretary general.

Kim is the third politician to defect from the DP to join the PPP before the general elections.

Last week, DP Rep. Noh Woong-rae launched a hunger strike to protest party leadership and nomination strategy, while Rep. Sul Hoon, a fifth-term lawmaker, also hinted he could leave the party.

In addition to the PPP, Lee Nak-yon's splinter New Future Party and former PPP chief Lee Jun-seok's New Reform Party offer alternatives for DP lawmakers seeking new homes, and more members could defect in the coming days.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]