Young underdog wins overwhelming primary victory in main opposition leadership race

Lee Jun-seok, a 36-year-old politician with no experience as a lawmaker, swept to victory Friday in the primary for the upcoming election to pick the new chairman of the main opposition party.

Lee was among the final five candidates selected through opinion polls to compete in the People Power Party’s (PPP) chairman election on June 11, according to the party’s election management committee.

The former member of the party’s supreme council was followed by former four-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won and incumbent five-term Rep. Joo Ho-young — both of whom served as floor leaders — as well as two other high-profile incumbent lawmakers.

The primary narrowed down the eight-horse chairman race to five candidates through opinion polls evenly divided between party members and private citizens. The party committee did not officially release the rankings of the polls, but party sources said Lee garnered a lion’s share of support at 41 percent. Na and Joo had 29 percent and 15 percent, respectively, they said.

A Harvard graduate, Lee joined the biggest conservative party in 2011 as a member of an interim emergency leadership council at the age of 26 and went on to become a reform icon.

Lee Jun-seok, a former member of the main opposition People Power Party’s Supreme Council, speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul on May 13, 2021. He swept to victory on May 28 in the primary for the upcoming election to pick the party’s new chairman. (Yonhap)