The Democratic Party of Korea's National Convention Preparatory Committee has decided to set aside one of the five elected supreme council seats exclusively for a youth representative at the Aug. 17 convention. The committee also reaffirmed its earlier decision that introducing a preferential voting system — a move that had sparked debate among party leader candidates — does not violate party rules.
Rep. Lee Yeon-hee, the committee's secretary, told reporters after Thursday's preparatory committee meeting at the National Assembly that one of the five elected supreme council members will be separately chosen as a youth supreme council member.
Lee said a preliminary primary will be held when there are four or more candidates, narrowing the field to three, with the top vote-getter under a one-person, one-vote system declared the winner. The youth supreme council member preliminary primary will be conducted in the same manner as the regular supreme council primary — with 50 percent of votes from central committee members and 50 percent from dues-paying party members.
Lee added that a proposal to lower the age eligibility for youth supreme council member candidacy to 39 had been reported to the committee but had not yet been put to a vote. Under the Democratic Party's current rules, "youth" is defined as up to age 45.
On the preferential voting controversy, Lee said the majority view within the committee was that the system "is difficult to regard as a violation of party rules." The committee had previously said it would revisit the issue after former party leader Jung Chung-rae's camp argued that introducing preferential voting for the party leader race could breach party regulations.
Lee said the preparatory committee had approved the measure and it was awaiting supreme council approval before moving to the party affairs committee, but remained pending before the supreme council. She said the committee's planning subcommittee reported on the matter Thursday.
The committee also voted to apply a 5 percent weighting — calculated against valid votes cast — to delegate and dues-paying member ballots from strategic regions including Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province and South Gyeongsang Province. The weighting will apply only for this convention, with the specific strategic regions to be designated later by the committee's party rules subcommittee.
The format for the party leader and supreme council member preliminary primaries was also decided Thursday. The preliminary primary will narrow the field to three candidates for party leader and eight for supreme council before the main primary. Preliminary primary vote tallies will not be made public. The committee had originally planned to announce regional primary results at the final venue each Sunday, but changed the format to announce same-day results separately on Saturdays and Sundays.
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