Democratic Party cuts candidate deposits by W20m each ahead of Aug. 17 convention

The Democratic Party of Korea has decided to reduce candidate deposits for its Aug. 17 party convention by 20 million won ($13,500) each for both the party leader and supreme council member races.

The party's central National Election Commission held a plenary session at the National Assembly on Tuesday and voted on the measure. Rep. Lim Ho-seon, the commission's vice chair, told reporters after the meeting that deposits — including the preliminary primary fee — had been set at 80 million won for party leader candidates and 30 million won for supreme council member candidates.

Lim added that the commission had also voted to extend a 50 percent deposit reduction to non-Assembly candidates with disabilities, covering both the preliminary and main primary fees. Previously, the discount applied only to non-Assembly youth candidates aged 39 or under.

The revision came just one week after the original figures drew criticism from inside and outside the party for being too high. On July 14, the commission had set deposits at 100 million won for the party leader race and 50 million won for supreme council member races — figures that included preliminary primary fees of 20 million won and 10 million won, respectively. Youth candidates outside the Assembly aged 39 or under had already been granted a 50 percent reduction under that earlier decision.

Under the revised structure, party leader candidates who clear the preliminary primary must pay an additional 60 million won, while supreme council member candidates must pay an additional 20 million won. Youth or disabled supreme council member candidates outside the Assembly need to pay an additional 5 million won, bringing their total to 15 million won after the 50 percent discount is applied to the adjusted deposit of 30 million won, which includes the 10 million won preliminary primary fee.

Lim said the original figures had been set with the cost of running the automated response system online vote in mind. "As party membership grows, the ARS online voting costs become enormous — we estimated roughly 800 million won," he said. "We judged it appropriate for candidates to bear the cost of the vote count, which is why we had set the figures at 100 million won and 50 million won."

He said the party concluded it could absorb the shortfall from cutting deposits by 20 million won each, given the large number of candidates who have entered the race.

The newly set deposits of 80 million won for the party leader and 30 million won for supreme council members match the levels from the 2020–2022 party conventions. At the 2024–2025 conventions held when President Lee Jae-myung led the party, deposits stood at 40 million won for the party leader race and 15 million won for supreme council member candidates.