Lee Jae-myung, the former leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, won a landslide victory in the party’s primary presidential elections held over the past two weeks.
With 89.77 percent of cumulative votes received in the metropolitan cities – including Seoul, the capital of South Korea – Lee showed his untouchable power within the DP and firmly kicked off his second attempt as the party’s candidate to become the president of South Korea. Lee’s share of the vote was the highest a DP primary candidate has received since 1987, when the country adopted the direct election system.
Of the two candidates contesting the primary against Lee, Kim Dong-yeon, the governor of Gyeonggi Province, received 6.87 percent of the votes, while Kim Kyeong-soo, former governor of South Gyeongsang Province, received 3.36 percent.
In an acceptance speech, Lee reiterated his will to integrate the deeply divided country, which he called the primary task for the president.
“I will repay [your support] by building a completely new country, a real South Korea filled with hope and passion,” Lee said during his acceptance speech on Sunday. “For a new world, I will make [this] a people’s victory, not Lee Jae-myung’s victory.”
Defining the presidential election as a race between the past and the future, not between the DP and the conservative People Power Party (PPP), Lee emphasized the necessity of restoring South Korea’s democracy, which has been weakened especially by Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law on December 3. Yoon of the PPP was officially removed from office on April 4 after being impeached over his martial law. That made Yoon the second consecutive president from South Korea’s conservative party to be impeached.
In this context, Lee apologized at the beginning of his speech for his failure to beat Yoon in the 2022 presidential election. Lee lost by only 0.7 percentage points, the narrowest margin in South Korea’s history.
Lee’s victory in the DP’s primary election was widely anticipated due to his successful grip on power. After serving as the DP’s presidential candidate in 2022, Lee has been the leader of the party for the past three years, stepping down only so that he could run for president. There were no serious challengers against him.
As Lee received one-sided support from DP members as well as the general public during the primary elections, his nominal rivals in the contest – Kim Dong-yeon and Kim Kyeong-soo – focused on appealing to the public as the DP’s post-Lee face rather than questioning his eligibility or capability as president. They seem to be wrangling to succeed Lee in the future rather than trying to defeat him in the primary election.
The show of party unity was a stark contrast to the previous presidential primary. In 2021, Lee became the DP candidate by narrowly securing a majority of votes. Former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, once seen as the most likely successor to then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in, was Lee Jae-myung’s main challenger. During the primary campaign, Lee Nak-yeon repeatedly floated allegations and accusations toward Lee Jae-myung, leaning into the so-called “judicial risk” that has plagued him ever since. The allegations also provided weapons for Yoon to use during the campaign, and given the close nature of the race, may have tipped the balance in Yoon’s favor.
Since 2022, Lee Jae-myung has been prosecuted for multiple charges related to corruption or electoral misconduct. In the wake of his defeat, Lee frequently had to show up in the courtroom trials as a suspect, averaging out to three court appearances a week.
The DP is hoping that party unity this time will be the key to getting Lee Jae-myung over the finish line. The signs are favorable: Lee’s recent approval ratings are hovering around 50 percent. This far outstrips the approval ratings of the PPP’s preliminary candidates, including former Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo, former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, and former leader of the PPP Han Dong-hoon.
The PPP downplayed Lee’s victory in the DP’s primary elections, calling it Lee’s coronation. It likes to frame the DP as a party controlled by Lee’s “dictatorship.”
The PPP’s primary elections are still underway, with just four candidates remaining. If a candidate succeeds in garnering more than 50 percent of votes on April 29, he will officially become the party’s presidential candidate. If not, the party will move on to the final stage, a head-to-head race between the top two candidates, and the winner will be announced on May 3.