Party Leadership Race Turns Into "Team Battle"... "Vote Only for Our Supreme Council Members"

[Anchor]

As the party convention to elect the leadership of the Democratic Party approaches, factional confrontation is intensifying. Candidates are appealing not only for the party leadership but also for supreme council members, urging supporters to vote out all opponents and elect only their own side.

Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

Yesterday morning at a meeting with Democratic Party members held in Ulsan, Democratic Party leadership candidate Jung Cheong-rae.

Three supreme council candidates from the pro-Jung faction, who self-proclaim as "Team Jung Cheong-rae," gathered in one place as usual.

Among Jung's supporters, a so-called "birthday voting" tactic is spreading, where votes are concentrated on two pro-Jung supreme council candidates based on the members' birth months.

Yesterday, candidate Jung also sharpened his attack by pointing out the past party departure history of pro-Lee candidate Kim Min-seok.

[Jung Cheong-rae / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: I am certain that I, Jung Cheong-rae, will be the ultimate protector of President Lee Jae-myung, having never once betrayed the party and never once left it.]

Around the same time, at a policy meeting for Democratic Party leadership candidate Kim Min-seok in Gwangju, four pro-Lee supreme council candidates joined Kim.

Candidate Kim directly targeted pro-Jung candidates yesterday, labeling them as "anti-Lee" and urging supporters to "vote out all those who only claim to be pro-Lee in words but act anti-Lee in reality."

[Kim Min-seok / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: I affirm that you will elect a 100% pro-Lee leadership consisting of five members who can resolutely criticize the 'anti-Lee' faction.]

Candidate Song Young-gil, who is focusing on gathering party sentiment in the Honam region, met with young party members in the Jeonbuk region, recalled what the party-presidency relations were like during Jung Cheong-rae's leadership, and said the following.

[Song Young-gil / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: It is difficult to agree with the criticisms made specifically by figures like writer Rhyu Si-min. What do you think?]

Seemingly targeting candidate Jung, Song wrote on social media that the party cannot be entrusted to forces that shake the president, who is the pillar of the party.

(Video reporting: Oh Young-chun, Kim Young-휘 KBC | Video editing: Lee Seung-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.