The People Power Party (PPP) has decided to introduce a so-called "masked singer primary" system for its nominations of metropolitan mayors and provincial governors in the June 3 local elections, where non-incumbent candidates first compete against each other before the winner faces the incumbent.
The PPP's Nomination Management Committee passed the resolution at its fifth meeting held at the party's central headquarters in Yeouido on the 5th.
"In cases where there are incumbent mayors, governors, county chiefs, or district chiefs, non-incumbent candidates will compete in a preliminary primary first, with the winner then facing the incumbent in the final primary," Nomination Committee Chairman Lee Jung-hyun said at a briefing. "We finalized it as a format similar to the 'Korea Series,' where the first-place team waits while the remaining teams compete."
Explaining the rationale behind the adoption, Lee said, "Incumbents already have secured basic party and supporter organizations, making it extremely difficult for young people and newcomers to overcome the incumbent barrier. We viewed this as inherently unfair."
"This is a first for the People Power Party," he emphasized. "It's a decision to provide fairness regardless of advantages or disadvantages, particularly to give opportunities to new challengers and foster competitiveness among rising politicians."
Specifically, finalists will be selected based on 20% from on-site evaluation panels, 40% from general citizen polls, and 40% from party member votes. The on-site evaluation panel will consist of 63 members recruited through open application. Candidates will be eliminated in stages after undergoing on-site evaluations. For the final primary between finalists and incumbents, 50% general citizen polls and 50% party member votes will be applied.
Currently, 11 of the nation's 17 metropolitan areas have PPP incumbent regional heads: Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, Busan Mayor Park Hyung-jun, Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo, South Chungcheong Governor Kim Tae-heum, Sejong Mayor Choi Min-ho, North Chungcheong Governor Kim Young-hwan, Gangwon Governor Kim Jin-tae, North Gyeongsang Governor Lee Cheol-woo, Ulsan Mayor Kim Doo-kyum, and South Gyeongsang Governor Park Wan-su.
For regions without incumbents, primaries will be the basic principle, but the Nomination Committee will decide whether to introduce preliminary primaries. However, the specific regions where the audition-style primary will apply has not yet been confirmed.
The committee also decided not to apply penalty deductions when district lawmakers run for metropolitan head positions. A provision was established to deduct up to 20 points for those who left the party after rejecting nominations and ran as independents within the past 10 years.
