Ruling People Power Party holds nat'l convention, names Han Dong-hoon new party leader

국민의힘 전당대회서 새 지도부 선출, 당대표 한동훈 "민심에 반응할 것"

Now we go over to the venue where the ruling People Power Party is holding its convention.
Our National Assembly correspondent Lee Shi-hoo is standing by where the party just not long ago announced the winner of the convention the new leader of the party.
Shi-hoo, do fill us in.

Jungmin, tonight Han Dong-hoon has been announced as the new leader of the ruling People Power Party, winning a majority with over 320-thousand votes.
It was just about an hour ago when the results came out and the crowd as Han accepted the post.
In his acceptance speech, Han vowed the party will "respond more to the people's voices" and change accordingly.

He is the former Minister of Justice and was the Interim Leader of the PPP during the recent general election in April.
Now, the voting took place during the four-day voting period from last Friday to yesterday.
According to party rules, eighty percent of the votes came from eligible party members, and the rest came from public opinion polls.
This time, only 48-point-5 percent or 4-hundred-8-thousand of the total 8-hundred-41-thousand eligible party members cast their ballots.
That's a little over 6 percentage points less than that of last year's convention, which had a record-high turnout.
This evening, the PPP also chose four new of the party's supreme council and one more member of its youth supreme council for those under 45 years of age.
The new supreme council members are Kim Meen-geon, Kim Jae-won, Ihn Yo-han, and Jang Dong-hyeok
And the new youth supreme council member is Jin Jong-oh.

And we hear that President Yoon came to congratulate the ruling party himself.

That's right, President Yoon Suk Yeol did pay a visit and delivered a speech.
He said the future of the conservative party is in the hands of its supporters.
Listen in.

Now, Yongsan kept a distance from the conservative ruling party during the preparation process leading up to the convention, not officially commenting or sharing its stance on potential new leaders.
It's expected that the new leader will aim for a closer relationship with the administration and more collaboration, especially in coming up with new policies tackling the country's low birthrate.

How do we expect to see the party's internal and external dynamics shift?

The newly-elected leader will be in the role for two years.
This is the first time in seven months that the PPP will be led by an official party chair and two months since the interim emergency steering leader Hwang Woo-yea led the party.
In the short term, the new leader faces mounting pressure from the opposition parties at the National Assembly, who are planning to push through their agendas during this July session, as early as tomorrow.
In the long term, the new leader is expected to do a good job preparing for the local election set to take place in June of 2026 where the PPP, with minority status in the Assembly, will aim for more regional leadership posts.

This is all I have for this hour, but I'll be back with more updates in a later newscast.
Jungmin.

That was our Lee Shi-hoo reporting live from the party's national convention in Goyang City.

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2024-07-23, 18:00 (KST)