[Anchor]
In the Chungcheong region, the first stop of the regional primaries to elect the Democratic Party's new leadership, party leadership candidate Kim Min-seok took first place. Today, Sunday, the Yeongnam regional primary will be held.
Reporter Kim Kwan-jin has the details.
[Reporter]
During yesterday's regional primaries covering South Chungcheong, North Chungcheong, Daejeon, and Sejong, candidate Kim Min-seok won 30,632 votes for a 45.05 percent share, edging out candidate Jung Cheong-rae, who received 44.61 percent, by a 0.44 percentage point margin to take first place.
Candidate Song Young-gil came in third with 10.34 percent of the vote.
In yesterday's primary, all three candidates emphasized the success of the Lee Jae-myung administration while engaging in a war of nerves over party-government relations and reform achievements.
[Song Young-gil / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: The Lee Jae-myung administration is being shaken by self-serving politics.]
[Jung Cheong-rae / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: Completing prosecution reform through the total abolition of supplementary investigation authority...]&br />
[Kim Min-seok / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: A continuation of the Myung-Cheong showdown is hell for the Democratic Party, and we must close the gates to that hell.]
Candidate Kim secured an advantageous position in the early race by winning in the Chungcheong region, which was considered candidate Jung's home turf and a relatively weaker area for Kim.
However, the gap between the two candidates is a mere 0.44 percentage points, and five more regional primaries remain.
In addition, primaries in Honam and the Seoul metropolitan area, where ordinary party members account for a large proportion, are still ahead, making it premature to predict the final outcome.
[Song Young-gil / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: Because it depends on Honam and the capital region, it is effectively a one-shot primary.]
[Jung Cheong-rae / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: I believe party members will protect and support me.]
[Kim Min-seok / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: Since it is not over, I will approach this with a heavier heart and devote my utmost sincerity...]&br />
Having wrapped up their first battle in the Chungcheong region, the party leadership and supreme council candidates are moving their stage to Busan, Ulsan, and South Gyeongsang Province to immediately dive into the second showdown.
(Camera Reporter: Seol Chi-hwan, Video Editor: Lee Seung-hee)
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