Presidential Primaries Kick Off

Lawmakers today kicked off a 41-day voting process to find the candidates to run in next year's presidential election. The six contenders from the ruling Democratic Party (DP) are Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung, former DP chief Lee Nak-yon and former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, as well as National Assembly member Park Yonh-jin, former justice minister Choo Mi-ae and former Governor of South Gyeongsang Kim Doo-kwan.

• Currently, the Gyeonggi governor Lee Jae-myung has a comfortable lead over his opponents with polling indicating he will receive around 25.6% of the vote.
• The election is due on March 9 2022, party officials predicted the first round of primaries to be announced on Sept. 12. The ruling DP plans to conduct an additional round of voting that will pit the primary's front-runner against the runner-up if the initial primary voting fails to produce a clear winner with more than half of the vote.
• The main opposition People Power Party said 15 people registered their names for its presidential primary, these include former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, former Board of Audit and Inspection Chairman Choe Jae-hyeong, former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min, former Jeju Province Gov. Won Hee-ryong and former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn.
• In a poll conducted by Hankook Research 50.7% of respondents stressed the importance of "putting a different party in power," substantially outnumbering the 38.5% who stressed the need for "continuity in leadership" when asked about the significance of the election.