Seoul, March 8. Parliamentarian Kim Gi-hyeon, 64, today rose to the helm of the People’s Power Party (PPP), the ruling party in South Korea, winning 53% of the votes of its members in this which is a victory that strengthens the position of the party. the current South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, within the bloc.
Kim won the Conservative Party’s internal elections ahead of veteran parliamentarian Ahn Cheol-soo, who won 23% of the vote, former prime minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, with 15%, and lawyer Chun Ha-ram , which obtained 9%.
His victory is seen as a triumph for President Yoon, as Kim is the candidate for whom the head of state has shown the most support.
More than half of the PPP’s 837,000 members, a record 55%, voted this week to elect a new leader after the party ousted its former leader, Lee Jun-seok, from office in 2022 over an alleged plot of prostitution and clientelism.
After a period of several months during which the formation was led by an interim leadership, Kim will preside over the party by 2025 with the aim of winning the legislative elections next year and taking control of the National Assembly (Parliament), which is currently held by the opposition and the Liberal Democratic Party (PD).
Another big challenge will be trying to pacify the party’s more pro-Yoon factions and other groups that co-exist within the PPP and have become increasingly divisive after Lee’s expulsion.
Kim, a law graduate from the prestigious Seoul National University, was mayor of the city of Ulsan (southeast) between 2014 and 2018 and served in parliament for four legislatures.