Parties’ nominations raise lots of questions

The process of nominating candidates for the April 10 parliamentary elections by the two mainstream parties raises questions if they really pay heed to public sentiment. The governing People Power Party (PPP) has completed selecting candidates for 190 out of 242 electoral districts. Among the 190 nominees, 110 were chosen as a single or preferred candidate in the constituencies. No current lawmakers of the party failed to get nominated. Rep. Kwon Seong-dong, close to President Yoon Suk Yeol, was also nominated as the sole candidate from the PPP in his own constituency.

Members of the party complain about the favorable terms for active lawmakers, but its inner conflict is less noisy than its rival Democratic Party (DP). But quieter rifts also means complacency without any generational change and innovation. Innovation stems from painful destruction and risk-taking.

In a recent interview, Jang Sung-min, former senior secretary to the president for future strategy, forecast the PPP will be able to grab 150 to 160 seats in the 30-member legislature in the upcoming election, while celebrating his win of a single candidacy. The PPP’s interim leader Han Dong-hoon warned against his “groundless” rosy forecast, but disagreed with the criticism about the conservative party’s “unemotional” nominations. He said the PPP’s nomination process at least had been less controversial. But “ordinariness” and lack of change are out of sync with the wishes of the public.

The DP is more of a mess, battered by the feud between lawmakers loyal to its leader Lee Jae-myung and those against him. Members are bolting out of the party or boycotting party affairs in protest of suspicious popularity polls and elimination based on the bottom 20-percent evaluation report on lawmakers. Most of the 51 candidates without internal rivals are loyal to Lee. Rep. Sul Hoon, who is not among them, hinted he would leave the party to protest the fairness of the nomination process. Despite opposition by floor leader Hong Ik-pyo, a pro-Lee member of the party gained a go-ahead to run in a primary to select the candidate representing a district in Seoul. An outside body supporting Lee Jae-myung criticized the floor leader for meddling in the nomination process. Lee claimed that the nomination system is fair. After Im Jong-seok, the chief of staff to former president Moon Jae-in, failed to get a nomination, it could trigger an epic fallout within the party.

Voters want a change. From what we have seen so far, nothing will change even after the April 10 election. The PPP calls the DP a fortress for Lee, while the DP calls the PPP a fortress for first lady Kim Keon Hee. Voters see better. They will make their judgment based on the vision and potential of new politics.