Political revenge that went too far in the DP

The Democratic Party's nomination for a district in northern Seoul epitomizes political retribution from leader Lee Jae-myung. The district’s Rep. Park Yong-jin underwent a primary with a 30 percent cut in votes, having placed in the bottom 10 percent of lawmakers in the party’s appraisal. That penalty originated with the representative’s sharp attacks on Lee during the 2022 convention to elect the DP's leader. After taking the helm of the majority party, Lee reassured Park that his attack would not affect his nomination for the April 10 parliamentary elections. But the results show the opposite.

Rep. Park had to face another primary but was defeated by former lawmaker Chung Bong-joo due to his penalty. Since Chung’s candidacy was revoked over his rough past remarks, Park, as the runner-up from the second primary, deserved a nomination. But the DP leader declared another race because “a second runner-up cannot become a winner just because the winner has a problem.”

But the DP’s trajectory points in the opposite direction. In a recent primary for a seat representing a South Jeolla constituency, the party cancelled its nomination by pointing to the candidate’s election fraud, despite his victory in the race, and nominated a pro-Lee figure instead. One wonders what nomination standards the DP really has.

The nomination rules the DP applied to the northern district’s controversial rematch are more dumbfounding. The party elected its candidate by counting the votes of DP members from across the country (70 percent) and the votes of members from the district (30 percent) to help neutralize Rep. Park's voting base. That's not all. While the lawmaker suffered the 30 percent punitive cut in votes, his rival received 25 percent additional votes as a female candidate.

Another candidate in Ansan, Gyeonggi, provoked rage from DP members close to former Presidents Moon Jae-in and Roh Moo-hyun with derogatory comments in a column. But the candidate grabbed a nomination from the district nonetheless. The DP leader nonchalantly said, “Criticisms of politicians constitute freedom of speech,” suggesting his intention to remove Rep. Jeon Hae-cheol, who is close to former president Moon, from the constituency and nominate his own aide instead.

Rep. Jeon is the archenemy of the DP leader. Lee Jae-myung could be behaving this way out of complacency. But voters are closely watching the weird developments in the party. The governing People Power Party is no different when it comes to rogue remarks, as seen in its cancellations of nominees for their past comments. The two major parties must not forget that modesty holds the key to election victory.