The People Power Party (PPP) has failed to recruit former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min as its Gyeonggi Province governor candidate, while calls to reconsider Rep. Joo Ho-young — excluded from the Daegu mayoral primary — are resurfacing. The party appears to be floundering in the Seoul metropolitan area, its most critical battleground, without a viable candidate, yet senior figures remain fixated on the Daegu nomination. Critics say the PPP's nomination strategy ahead of local elections is reaffirming the limits of a "Yeongnam party" approach rather than broadening its appeal.
Lee Jeong-hyeon, chair of the PPP's Nomination Management Committee, met reporters after a committee meeting at the party's headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on May 31 and announced that the entire committee, including himself, had decided to resign. "We attempted to change the game through this nomination process, and there was fierce backlash and conflict along the way," Lee said. "But a quiet nomination means nothing has changed. This nomination was an attempt to chart the direction in which the PPP needs to evolve." He added, "It would be desirable for a new committee to handle the remaining local elections and National Assembly by-elections in a more stable and continuous manner."
The mass resignation came just 40 days after the committee was formed. Although Lee did not say so directly, the fallout from the Daegu mayoral and Chungbuk governor primaries, as well as the failure to finalize a Gyeonggi governor candidate, are seen as contributing factors. Lee's earlier announcement that he would run for the combined Jeonnam-Gwangju mayor seat — a conservative stronghold challenge — also appears to have motivated the move to avoid unnecessary conflict-of-interest controversies.
The committee's departure has reignited the Daegu mayoral primary dispute. Candidates excluded under Lee's committee uniformly called for the primary process to be reviewed from scratch. Rep. Joo, who filed an injunction against his cut-off, met privately with party leader Jang Dong-hyeok and stressed that "the nomination must be corrected." Jang reportedly replied, "I will give it careful thought." However, observers inside and outside the party note that a six-candidate primary is already under way and Jang has consistently said he would respect the primary results, making a reversal unlikely.
The concern is that this dynamic sends a negative signal when viewed alongside the party's overall election strategy. In Gyeonggi Province, the Yoo Seung-min option has definitively collapsed, and external recruitment efforts have made no headway. Meanwhile, repeated discussions about re-entry by senior figures in Daegu risk creating the impression that the party is more preoccupied with reshuffling Yeongnam power bases than expanding in the capital region.
Political circles warn the nomination turmoil could burden the PPP's outreach strategy. "With the Yoo Seung-min card — the party's gambit for Gyeonggi — off the table, restructuring the Daegu mayoral race around established political figures like Joo Ho-young and Lee Jin-suk could hurt the overall election picture," a political insider said. "Especially now that former Prime Minister Kim Bu-gyeom's entry has made the Daegu race far tougher than before, a strategy of fielding a fresh, less politically colored figure to deliver a shock of novelty might have been the better move."
The Gyeonggi governor nomination remains shrouded in uncertainty. The PPP has struggled to find a candidate and had tried to persuade Yoo through multiple channels. Yoo, however, repeatedly stated he had no intention of running, and Lee confirmed on the day that "we respect former lawmaker Yoo's wishes" and that no further persuasion attempts would be made.
The party leadership and nomination committee also explored external recruitment by contacting multiple business figures, but those efforts have reportedly stalled as well. Local election rules require candidates to register residency in the relevant jurisdiction at least 60 days before the vote, and as of May 31 only four days remained before the residency transfer deadline — leaving little room. Given these constraints, an internal pick between existing candidates — Supreme Council member Yang Hyang-ja and former CEO Ham Jin-gyu — is gaining traction over outside recruitment.
The party plans to form a separate nomination committee to swiftly handle remaining by-election nominations. Party leader Jang said, "I am grateful for the efforts to deliver nominations that meet the public's expectations. We will form a separate committee and proceed quickly with the remaining local and by-election nominations."
Within the party, some voices argue that existing candidates for Gyeonggi governor deserve serious consideration. A nomination committee official said, "Democratic Party candidates talk about semiconductors every day, because Gyeonggi is essentially half about semiconductors. Existing candidates such as Supreme Council member Yang, a semiconductor expert, are fully competitive in terms of their profiles."