The People Power Party (PPP) has decided to restart the Chungcheongbuk-do governor primary from scratch, including Kim Young-hwan, the incumbent governor who had been excluded through a candidate cut-off.
Park Deok-heum, chairman of the PPP's Nomination Management Committee, held a meeting at the party's central headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, on Monday and said, "For the Chungbuk governor race, we will return to the initial registration point and conduct a preliminary primary among all candidates. The candidate who passes will then face the incumbent governor in a one-on-one primary."
The format is a so-called "Korean Series" method, in which one candidate who clears the preliminary primary faces the incumbent governor in the main primary.
Under the committee's decision, the path was opened for former National Police Agency Commissioner Yoon Hee-geun and former Chungju Mayor Cho Gi-hyung — who had initially registered as preliminary candidates but refused to participate in the primary in protest over the nomination process — to return to the race. However, both candidates are reportedly still maintaining their stance of non-participation.
Kim Su-min, a former lawmaker who had previously withdrawn from the preliminary candidacy, will be excluded from this primary. Kim had voluntarily withdrawn on May 31 after a court granted an injunction filed by Gov. Kim Young-hwan to suspend the effect of his nomination exclusion.
The PPP Nomination Management Committee also decided to accept the appeal filed by Cheongju Mayor Lee Beom-seok, who had been cut off. Chairman Park said, "After thoroughly reviewing additional explanatory materials submitted during the appeal process as well as the local election conditions, we decided to accept the appeal."
Regarding the Daegu mayoral candidate primary — in which lawmaker Joo Ho-young has filed a court injunction seeking to suspend the effect of the committee's decision — Chairman Park said, "We will make a decision after seeing the outcome of the injunction."