Kim Min-seok beats Jung Chung-rae by 5.6 percentage points in Jeju, Incheon primaries, but cumulative race remains razor-thin

Democratic Party of Korea leadership candidate Kim Min-seok defeated rivals Jung Chung-rae and Song Young-gil in Saturday's regional primaries in Jeju and Incheon.

The Democratic Party's central National Election Commission held joint campaign events in both cities before announcing the party member vote results.

Kim took 47.75% of the vote, outpacing Jung's 42.08% by 5.67 percentage points. Song, whose constituency is in Incheon (Yeonsu-gap), received 10.17%.

Despite the win, the cumulative totals — excluding a weighting adjustment for South Gyeongsang Province — show Kim at 45.42% and Jung at 44.56%, a margin of less than 1 percentage point, keeping the race effectively tied.

In the first week of regional primaries, Kim won in the Chungcheong region while Jung took the Busan-Ulsan-South Gyeongsang contest, leaving both candidates at one win apiece. Under a one-person, one-vote system being applied for the first time at this party convention, the leadership electorate is weighted 70% toward delegates and party members and 30% toward the general public.

Only party member vote results are disclosed during the regional primary rounds. Delegate votes — cast online on Aug. 17 — and general public results, gathered through polling on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16, will be announced at the full party convention in Daejeon on Aug. 17, after all regional primaries have concluded.

The leadership race uses a preferential voting system. If no candidate secures a majority in the first count, the second-choice votes of those who ranked the lowest-placed candidate first are added to the totals of the top two finishers to determine the winner.