Rep. Lee Jae-myung of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea raises his hands during a primary election for the party chairmanship held in the central Korean city of Daejeon on August 11. Yonhap
Rep. Lee Jae-myung, former chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), won a landslide victory in Seoul’s primary elections on Saturday, giving him a good chance of becoming party chairman for a second term.
In the final round of primary voting in Seoul, Lee won 92.43 percent of the votes of registered party members, followed by former Interior Minister Kim Doo-gwan with 6.27 percent and other candidate Kim Ji-soo with 1.3 percent.
After winning nearly 90 percent of the vote in 17 rounds of primary voting and among foreign voters, Lee is widely expected to be elected as the new party leader at a national party congress on Sunday.
In June, Lee resigned from office to run for re-election because the party’s current constitution requires the party chairman to resign from his leadership post to be eligible to run as a candidate.
Lee is considered the Liberal Party’s frontrunner for the next presidential election in 2027, despite being at the center of several scandals, including a land development scandal in Seongnam, south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
