[Anchor]

Candidate Kim Min-seok has taken first place in the ordinary party member votes in Jeju and Incheon, the third regional primaries for electing the Democratic Party's new leadership. During the joint speeches, the party leadership candidates sparred over issues such as party-government conflicts and allegations of Shincheonji intervention.

Reporter Park Jae-yeon has the details.

[Reporter]

According to the results of the ordinary party member votes for the Democratic Party's Jeju and Incheon regional primaries announced yesterday evening (August 8), party leadership candidate Kim Min-seok ranked first with 47.75% of the votes.

Candidate Jung Cheong-rae finished second with 42.08%, while Candidate Song Young-gil placed third with 10.17%.

When combining these results with the previous primaries in the Chungcheong region as well as Busan, Ulsan, and South Gyeongsang, Candidate Jung had led Candidate Kim by a margin of about 1,200 votes. However, with yesterday's results added, Candidate Kim has pulled ahead of Candidate Jung by roughly 1,400 votes.

However, because a 5% weighting is applied to the Yeongnam regional votes when tallied at the end, the vote margin may change slightly.

In the joint speeches preceding the results, Candidate Kim emphasized sharing the state administration philosophy between the party and the presidency, Candidate Jung stressed launching an ethics audit regarding the Shincheonji allegations, and Candidate Song called for the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, each appealing to the party members.

[Kim Min-seok / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate : Who is sharing the President's profound and desperate direction for state administration at this critical time more closely?]

[Jung Cheong-rae / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate : Please prove through an ethics audit that Shincheonji has nothing to do with the Democratic Party.]

[Song Young-gil / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate : I, Song Young-gil, will push for the impeachment of Cho Hee-dae. I will immediately suspend his duties. I, Song Young-gil, will finish judicial reform.]

For the Supreme Council member candidates, the Jeju and Incheon regional ordinary party member voting results ranked from first to fifth place as follows: Park Sun-won, Choi Min-hee, Seo Mi-hwa, Han Min-su, and Kim Yong.

Following Jeju and Incheon, the Democratic Party continues its national convention regional primaries today in Gangwon, Daegu, and North Gyeongsang.

(Camera: Lee Seung-hwan, Kang Si-woo | Video Editing: Won Hyung-hee)