The People Power Party (PPP) nomination management committee for the June 3 local elections, including Chairman Lee Jeong-hyeon, abruptly resigned on Saturday.
The PPP will form a new nomination committee to handle candidate selections for the National Assembly by-elections to be held alongside the June 3 local elections. Lee is expected to run for the mayor of Jeonnam-Gwangju Special City, where no candidates have filed for nomination.
"Today I am stepping down as nomination committee chairman, and all committee members have resigned collectively," Lee said at a press conference held at the party's central headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Saturday morning.
"Except for the Gyeonggi governor candidate, we have completed the central nomination committee-level nominations for metropolitan government heads, and primaries are underway," he said. "Nominations for cities with populations over 500,000 are also nearly complete, with primaries proceeding or single candidates already confirmed."
"The nomination committee has nearly finished its work related to the local elections, but the National Assembly by-elections need to move forward urgently," Lee said. "By-election nominations are a different matter from what the local election nomination committee handles, so the party leadership and I decided on a collective resignation."
He added, "I shared with the party leadership the view that it would be best to form a new nomination committee to handle by-election nominations, and Chairman Jang Dong-hyeok agreed with that assessment."