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| The ruling Democratic Party of Korea's candidate for Gyeonggi governor, Kim Dong-yeon, speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps |
By Nam Hyun-woo
The Gyeonggi governor election has become a proxy battle between President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition (PPP) and his former rival Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), as the parties field candidates seen as representing the two politicians.
During the DPK's primary on Monday to select its candidate for the Gyeonggi Province governor election on June 1, former Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon clinched 50.47 percent of the support, outpacing Rep. An Min-suk and other contenders.
"Candidate Kim will realize the DPK's tradition of one-team spirit and join efforts with other contenders to win the Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial election," Kim's camp said in a statement.
Kim served as deputy prime minister and economy minister from 2017 to 2018 and ran in the presidential election earlier this year.
He initially ran in the election as an independent candidate, but withdrew his campaign to support Lee. During this process, Kim and Lee agreed on Kim's ideas for political reforms that entail constitutional amendments.
As Kim, a political rookie, is leading in the primary despite having almost no support base in the DPK, pundits said Lee's influence appears to have been affected.
Lee is now serving as a standing supervisor of the party, taking a step back from the political frontline after the election loss. However, the former Gyeonggi governor is still exercising indirect influence over various matters in the party, with rumors growing that he is endorsing Kim as the Gyeonggi governor candidate.
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| The People Power Party's candidate for Gyeonggi governor, Kim Eun-hye, listens to other participants during a meeting in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Yonhap |
Kim will face the PPP's candidate, Rep. Kim Eun-hye, a former spokesperson for the president-elect, in the election, staging a proxy war of the two parties' icons.
The PPP's Kim was selected as the party's candidate after beating former presidential candidate Yoo Seong-min in a primary last week.
The PPP gave a disadvantage of 5 percentage points to incumbent lawmakers running in the primary, but Kim won the primary with 52.67 percent support, outpacing Yoo's 44.6 percent.
Rep. Kim is described as one of the closest aides to the president-elect. A former MBC news anchor and first-term lawmaker, she rose as a hotshot after assisting Yoon on campaign strategy, alleging during the presidential election campaign that DPK candidate Lee had been involved in a land development scandal. After the election, she served as Yoon's spokesperson, gaining public attention as a close aide to the incoming president.
In a survey by People Networks Research, the DPK's Kim is leading the PPP's Kim by 48.8 percent to 41 percent, in a hypothetical two-way race. When independent candidate Kang Yong-seok is included, the DPK's Kim was leading the race with 50.2 percent, followed by the PPP's Kim with 34 percent and Kang with 8.7 percent.
The survey was requested by New Daily and questioned 802 adults in Gyeonggi Province from April 23 to 24. Further details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
As of Tuesday, the DPK and the PPP both fielded their election candidates for mayors and governors of 10 metropolitan cities and provinces. This includes governors of Gyeonggi, South and North Chungcheong, Gangwon and South Jeolla, and mayors of Incheon, Daejeon, Busan, Ulsan and Daegu. The PPP has completed the selection of its candidates for all 17 cities and provinces.
With the Gyeonggi governor election being anticipated to be the most heated battle, also of notice are the Seoul mayoral election, in which a DPK candidate will challenge Mayor Oh Se-hoon of the PPP. The North Chungcheong Province governor election is also garnering interest, in which the DPK's Noh Young-min, former chief of staff to President Moon Jae-in, and the PPP's Kim Young-hwan, President-elect Yoon's special adviser, are vying for the post.
