Han Dong-hoon back at helm of People Power Party

The ruling People Power Party wrapped up its 2024 national convention on Tuesday with Han Dong-hoon back at its helm.

At the finale of the convention in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, Han emerged victorious in the contentious four-way race to be the party’s chair. He won more than 62 percent of the ballots from the 408,272 registered voters who participated, according to the party’s final count.

In his victory speech, the former justice minister said he wanted to transform his party into “a party that works for the South Korean people.”

“Our party must transcend divisions and factions to stand for all South Koreans, not just for those who chose us,” he said.

He said that under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, South Korea has “restored a value-based diplomacy” and “fixed our alliance with the US.”

“We will stand united against forces that threaten our democracy in these precarious times, and build a party that delivers results for all.”

The ruling party has been gearing up for a leadership change at the high-stakes national convention, aiming to set a new course as the president suffers faltering ratings and mounting attacks from the opposition.

The convention unfolded amid signs Yoon may be turning into a lame duck president less than halfway through his five-year term.

Last month, demand to sign an online petition to impeach the president -- whose latest ratings have hovered below the 30 percent mark in some of the least favorable polls -- crashed the National Assembly website with high traffic. The second Assembly hearing for the petition, signed by over 1.4 million people, is scheduled for Friday.

His wife, Kim Keon Hee, was summoned by prosecutors for questioning Saturday over two separate allegations, one of which is that she received a luxury handbag and other gifts in 2022 as possible bribes.

In what many viewed as a test of loyalty to the president, contenders to be the ruling party leader were asked whether they agreed with launching a special counsel investigation of the first lady -- long called for by opposition figures -- for which polls demonstrate growing support.

In a possible testament to Yoon’s slipping grip on the party, the convention turned out to be less of a loyalty contest than the last one in March 2023, when candidates campaigned on how close they were to the president. This time, candidates were careful to avoid being labeled either pro- or anti-Yoon.

Of the four contenders, the only one who voiced support for an investigation damaging to the Yoon presidential office was Han.

The former prosecutor-turned-politician was once described as “Yoon’s wingman” until his rift with the president spilled into public view over the course of the National Assembly election campaign early this year.

Yoon and Han were a celebrated prosecutorial duo who led high-profile investigations of some of the country’s most powerful figures, including the two previous conservative Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak.

On Han apparently growing apart from Yoon, one ruling party insider said he seemed to be “no longer content being the president’s sidekick and to want to pursue his own political ambitions.”

From the race’s start to finish, the political novice reigned supreme in polls and other estimates competing against better-established names like Na Kyung-won and Won Hee-ryong.

Han’s first foray into politics came in December as interim leader of the ruling party, which he was called to helm through the final three months leading to the April general election for the Assembly. He stepped down in the aftermath of the party’s crushing defeat to the rival Democratic Party of Korea.

The ruling party was once again likely picking a counterpart to Rep. Lee Jae-myung, who appears on a glide path to clinching another term as leader of the Democratic Party.

Lee has consistently scored over 90 percent of votes from registered supporters in the last three rounds against two opponents, both of whom are stuck in the single digits. His overwhelming lead in polls so far makes him the seemingly inevitable winner of the Democratic Party convention less than a month away.

One of the main themes of the ruling party convention has been how aptly the next leader could keep the Assembly majority-controlling Democratic Party in check.

The Democratic Party occupies 170 out of 300 seats in the Assembly, with up to 18 seats held by five minor liberal parties that could come rally together against the ruling party.

“The next leader of our party shoulders a historic responsibility of defending democracy and bipartisanship in the Assembly,” People Power Party Floor Leader and former Finance Minister Rep. Choo Kyung-ho said Tuesday.

“Bipartisan dialogue, compromise and consensus have vanished in the halls of the Assembly as the Democratic Party wields its majority to unilaterally push bills and initiatives.”