[Anchor]
The leadership of the Democratic Party, which had been in conflict over the method for electing the next party leader, decided today (July 14) to push for an amendment to party regulations to introduce a 'preferential voting system.' Pro-Cheong faction supreme council members strongly opposed the move, with one even announcing their resignation.
Report by Ha Jeongyeon.
[Reporter]
The Democratic Party leadership has been engaged in heated debates over whether to introduce a preferential voting system for the next party leadership election scheduled for August 17.
Unable to reach a conclusion due to conflicting interests between factions regarding election rules, the leadership decided today, following a closed-door meeting, to pursue an amendment to party regulations to implement the preferential voting system.
The preferential voting system allows voters to rank candidates from first to third choice on their ballots. If no candidate secures a majority, the votes of the candidate with the fewest votes are redistributed to the voters' second-choice candidates to determine the final winner.
Pro-Cheong faction members had previously opposed the introduction of the system, arguing it violated the party constitution and regulations. However, after intense discussion, the decision was made to introduce it through a revision of the party regulations.
[Kang Jun-hyun/Chief Spokesperson of the Democratic Party: We decided to amend the party regulations to minimize controversy regarding the election of the leadership.]
The pro-Cheong faction, which maintains that not only the party regulations but also the party constitution should be amended, protested the Supreme Council's decision. Supreme Council member Lee Sung-yoon declared his resignation from his post, stating that he could not accept the decision.
[Lee Sung-yoon/Supreme Council Member of the Democratic Party: I raised objections to pushing through a system that violates the party constitution and regulations with only one week left until candidate registration. I simply cannot accept this.]
The Democratic Party plans to hold a Party Affairs Committee meeting at 4:00 PM today to attempt to pass the amendment to the party regulations. If the amendment is approved, the preferential voting system is expected to be implemented in the upcoming national convention.
The introduction of a 'Youth Supreme Council Member' system, which would separate one of the five elected supreme council seats for a youth representative, was also discussed today but was rejected by the Supreme Council.
(Video reporting: Kim Yong-woo, Video editing: Nam Il)
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