Lee Jae-myung's Party Member Sovereignty Democratic Party National Convention Voter Turnout of 20%, 'No Confidence'
The party member sovereignty hastily created under the Lee Jae-myung leadership system is showing a vote of no confidence in the Democratic Party National Convention with a 20% voter turnout for the representative election, which is the direct voting right of party members.
The Democratic Party National Convention recorded a voter turnout of 20.28% on the 3rd, with 36,662 of the 151,162 party member electors participating in the Jeonbuk regional primary.
Following that, the voter turnout rate for the Gwangju region, a Democratic Party stronghold, was 25.29%, with 26,033 out of 102,925 party member electors in Gwangju participating in the online vote. In his Jeju City Party speech on the 20th of last month, the former representative said, “Solving the people’s livelihood problem, foodism, should be our strongest political ideology,” and “Among the numerous problems, the livelihood problem is the most important. The foundation of the people’s livelihood is the economy.”
On this day, 5,869 (18.39%) of the 31,921 general voters participated in the online vote of the Jeju City Party’s Democratic Party’s rights members.
The Democratic Party’s national convention election tally is 56% rights members, 14% delegates, and 30% general opinion polls. If 20% of the rights members participate in the vote, it only reflects 10% of the total ratio of 56%.
The overall decision-making in which 20% of the party members, who are sovereign exercisers, participated falls short of the normal quorum, which is a majority, so the withdrawal of the bill seems normal. In his declaration of candidacy for the party leadership on July 10, former representative Lee stated, “The owners of the Democratic Party of Korea are our 2.5 million party members,” and “The most important task for the Democratic Party now is to become a more capable, innovative, and prepared party so that the sovereign will of party members can be properly exercised and realized,” and declared that “the power of the party comes from the power of party members” in a “party-centered mass party.” In his declaration of candidacy, former representative Lee stated, “The fate of the Democratic Party lies in the hands of party members and in the hands of the people who believe in and support the Democratic Party,” and completely excluded the fundamental right of the people to form political will in the Political Parties Act by separating the “people” from the Democratic Party dominated by Democratic Party members, and violated the principle of popular sovereignty in the Constitution by separating the “party members and the people” from the beginning to the end. The former representative's declaration of candidacy declared that "security is the people's livelihood," and the term "democracy" was limited to "the National Assembly, the last bastion of democracy and the people's livelihood," and "the Democratic Party, the majority party, is responsible for politics, the people's livelihood," and thus chose a party structure based on the ideology of "foodie-ism" and excluding party democracy. Article 1 of the Constitution states that "the sovereignty of the Republic of Korea resides in the people, and all state authority emanates from the people," and this representative separated the sovereignty of the people and the sovereignty of the party members through "strengthening the rights of party members through the sovereignty of the party members," and declared that the sovereignty of the people takes precedence over the sovereignty of the party members. Article 49 of the Constitution stipulates that “the National Assembly shall make decisions with the attendance of a majority of its members and the consent of a majority of the members present, unless otherwise provided for in the Constitution or laws,” thereby stipulating “the attendance of a majority” for legal matters, and the Democratic Party, which advocated party member sovereignty, showed a practical refusal by “exercising 20% of the right to vote” in the election of former representative Lee.
Article 8 of the Constitution stipulates that “political parties shall be democratic in their purpose, organization, and activities, and shall have the necessary organizations to participate in the formation of the people’s political will,” and Article 11 prohibits special treatment for political party members by stating that “all citizens shall be equal before the law. No one shall be discriminated against in any area of political, economic, social, or cultural life due to gender, religion, or social status.”
See <Lee Jae-myung’s Party Member Doctrinalism Rejects Democracy, ‘Party Members Are the Power to Win General Elections,’ July 12, 2024>