South Korea: Democratic Presidential Primary Update

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube 9.26) From left to right, across top, Lee Jae-myung, Lee Nak-yon, Chu Mi-ae, Park Yong-jin, Kim Du-gwan. From top to bottom left side, completed primaries in sequence, Daejeon/Chungnam 9.4: Sejong/Chungbuk 9.5; Daegu/Gyeongbuk 9.11; Gangwon 9.12; Gwangju/Jeonam 9.25 ; Jeonbuk 9.26.

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube 9.26) The remaining primaries are Oct.1, Cheju; Oct.2, Pusan, Ulsan, Geongnam; Oct.3, Inchon, with announcement of second round party electoral voting results; Oct.10, Seoul, with announcement of third round party electoral voting results.

Lee Jae-myung represents the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in South Korea. The false allegations of corruption raised by the conservative opposition party to try to deflect the mushrooming scandals around their candidate Yoon Seok-yeol and his family were repeated by Lee JM's democratic party rival Lee Nak-yon. Lee NY lost support across South Korea for his poor performance as Democratic Party Leader stalling reforms promoted by the Moon Administration and the so called "candle light revolution" that brought democrats the presidency in 2017. The only reason Lee NY was able to edge Lee JM in the one regional primary in Honam (Gwangju/Jeonam 9.25) was because that area primary is is Lee Nak-won's home region. The less than one percent edge in that primary is deceptive because the other minor candidates Chu Mi-ae, and Kim Du-gwan support Lee Jae-myung. Even in his home region, Lee Nak-yon couldn't win a majority. In the words of one pundit, the theme of Lee Jae-myung's moving appeal to his rival's home crowd was "do you want the spirit of the Kwanju people or just someone who was born here?"

Lee Jae-myung has won by overwhelming margins on five of six primary reporting dates so far. Lee Nak-yon is regarded as a political hack who favors the so called corrupt special interests in South Korean politics. Lee tends to agree with the conservative politicians representing those interests. He even called for imprisoned former conservative presidents Park Guen-hye and Lee Myung-bak, imprisoned for corruption and abuse of office, to be pardoned which caused a dramatic drop in his public support early on. Chu Mi-ae, another reform candidate and former Justice Minister on the democratic side (she polls about 5%) appears to be staying in the primary race to deal with Lee Nak-yon's negative campaigning. She more or less labels him as a traitor to the party and the party's popular base in her public statements and on social media, so Lee Jae-myung won't have to lower himself to Lee Nak-yon's gutter level politics of ad hominem attacks helping the conservative cause.