PPP slams Democratic Party convention withdrawals as 'ostracism' of anti-Lee faction

The People Power Party criticized the withdrawal of Democratic Party of Korea supreme council candidates Im Mi-ae and Kim Young-ho from the party's Aug. 17 national convention — both stepped aside urging support for candidate Kim Yong — as the "ostracism" of factions aligned with Jung Chung-rae and opposed to Lee Jae Myung.

PPP spokesperson Cho Yong-sul said in a statement Monday that after pro-Jung candidates swept first, second and third place in the Seoul and Gyeonggi Province primaries, Kim Young-ho and Im Mi-ae withdrew in succession "to rescue Kim Yong — a core pro-Lee figure pushed outside the winning range." Cho said the moves were "nothing more than strategic withdrawals to funnel votes to Kim Yong ahead of balloting by delegates, overseas party members and public polling."

Targeting Kim Yong specifically, Cho noted that the candidate had been sentenced to prison in both the first and second trials on charges of receiving illegal political funds and bribes from private developers in the Daejang-dong case, with a Supreme Court ruling still pending. "The Democratic Party is acting as though factional survival takes precedence over judicial judgment, effectively throwing votes behind a candidate without asking questions," he said.

Cho added that as the pro-Lee camp became consumed by political engineering — keeping Kim Yong afloat while pushing out pro-Jung and anti-Lee figures — "the public's standards and basic morality have been shoved aside." He asked: "Is it acceptable to discard your own principles and conscience for the sake of political gain?"

He further said that throughout the convention "crude attacks on rival candidates have continued, and controversy has erupted over President Lee Jae Myung backing specific candidates within the party." Cho said the convention "has devolved from a competition of visions for the public into a power struggle in which the pro-Lee and pro-Jung/anti-Lee camps are at each other's throats."

Cho continued: "The fact that such a party is the ruling party responsible for running the country is an even greater source of anxiety for the public." He said that while the Democratic Party would likely try to move on as if nothing had happened once the convention ended, "the convention has already become a psychological split convention."

Im Mi-ae and Kim Young-ho announced their withdrawal from the supreme council race on Sunday, calling on supporters to back Kim Yong.

Before the withdrawals, Im had accumulated 6.62 percent of the vote and Kim Young-ho 3.37 percent — seventh and eighth, respectively, among the eight supreme council candidates, based on cumulative tallies excluding a 5 percent weighting for South Gyeongsang Province, Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.

With both candidates effectively out of contention, their moves are widely seen as an effort to rescue pro-Lee candidate Kim Yong, who is locked in a tight battle for fifth place — the last seat on the supreme council — against pro-Jung candidates Lee Sung-yoon and Han Min-su.

In the party member vote held earlier, Lee Sung-yoon stood at 13.94 percent, Han Min-su at 13.77 percent and Kim Yong at 13.62 percent, placing fourth, fifth and sixth respectively in a nail-biting contest for the fifth spot.