Rising presidential hopefuls bending candidacy rules to hedge career bets

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Rising presidential hopefuls bending candidacy rules to hedge career bets

Published: 14 Apr. 2025, 17:23 Updated: 14 Apr. 2025, 19:19

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Now former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo departs city hall after his resignation ceremony on April 11. City government officials and employees bid farewell to Hong who is running for presidency. [NEWS1]

A relay of governors and mayors are eyeing the presidency and declaring their candidacies without stepping down from their posts, seemingly prioritizing their political interests above domestic duties.

Aside from former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, who stepped down from his post on Friday, the mayor of Incheon and governors of Gyeonggi and North Gyeongsang are joining the presidential race without resigning from their posts.

As of Saturday, Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, Gyeonggi Gov. Kim Dong-yeon and North Gyeongsang Gov. Lee Cheol-woo have declared their presidential candidacy while maintaining their office.

The three incumbent mayors and governors intend to use their leave of absence until their party's primaries, which is expected in late April or early May. Accordingly, three to four weeks of a leadership void vacuum appear to be inevitable in several localities.

Prolonged vacancies

Gyeonggi Gov. Kim Dong-yeon, left, poses for a photograph at the Lansing Office in Michigan, United States with the state Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on April 11. Kim declared his presidential bid on April 9. [GYEONGGI PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT]

However, they must either vacate or return to their offices no later than May 4. The Public Official Election Act requires state officials — including governors and mayors — to resign from their seats at least 30 days before the presidential election if they are running as candidates.

In this case, by-elections would not take place. Instead, deputy mayors and governors will serve as acting chiefs of the localities until the regular municipal election in early June next year.

The law stipulates that by-elections would not take place when the time gap between the by-election date and their term expiry is less than a year.

Specifically, for the localities that lost their mayors and governors between March and August, the law sets a by-election date on the first Wednesday in October of the same year. Current gubernatorial and mayoral terms are due to expire on June 30 next year, leaving only a nine-month gap from October this year.

Of the three presidential hopefuls keeping their seats, Gyeonggi Gov. Kim is the only liberal Democratic Party-backed (DP) candidate.

The other two — Incheon Mayor Yoo and North Gyeongsang Gov. Lee — will compete against each other to become conservative presidential candidate representing the People Power Party (PPP). On Saturday, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, also of the PPP, backpedaled his decision to run as a presidential candidate.

Prof. Bai Byoung-inn, a politics scholar from Kookmin University’s college of social sciences, told the Korea JoongAng Daily that the PPP — which experienced the ouster of the PPP-backed President Yoon Suk Yeol — has failed in filtering political ambitions among its politicians.

“It appeared that politically motivated mayors and governors are rushing toward the presidential race in a situation where their party is in confusion,” Bai said.

If those presidential hopefuls fail to earn a presidential nomination from their parties, they will return to their office and serve until the expiry of their tenure in June next year.

Critics and local loyalists

Conservative People Power Party-backed Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok speaks at the National Assembly in western Seoul on April 10, a day after he declared his presidential candidacy. [YONHAP]

Prof. Bai said that several presidential candidates are seemingly attempting “to raise their profile” ahead of next year’s local election. “While some are taking the presidential election seriously, some others might have measured that gaining nationwide popularity would benefit them in the upcoming local election.”

Yet, the professor said there would be a “trade-off” for those presidential hopefuls, adding that their local constituents might negatively assess them as an unreliable leader.

Bai also said their presidential bids are not necessarily irresponsible. He noted that the Korean political structure nurtures capable public officials through local governance and enables them to go to larger platform if they prove their competency.

“That said, running for the presidency without resignation carries a purpose of returning to their mayoral or gubernatorial seats if they fail to obtain presidential nomination from their party,” Bai said. “It is for one’s political ambition, not for a greater good.”

Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon speaks at a general assembly for governors and mayors which was held in central Seoul in last December. [NEWS1]

There are mayors and governors who are against such a political tide of joining the presidential race, including Seoul Mayor Oh.

On Thursday, South Chungcheong Gov. Kim Tae-heum wrote on Facebook that he would not run for presidential office and would “dedicate” himself to gubernatorial duty. He added that he believes that “running for presidency should not be a means for building up one’s political career nor a preparation for future elections.”

South Chungcheong Gov. Kim’s decision came a day after he had said he would contemplate various possibilities about the presidential election on Wednesday.

Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon also wrote that he “felt sorry for not corresponding to multiple requests” that asked him to run in the PPP presidential primary and build a new leadership on his Facebook.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]