▲ The ruling Democratic Party holds a meeting of the party's supreme council at the National Assembly on July 14, 2026, to discuss whether to adopt a ranked choice voting system for the Aug. 17 national convention. (Yonhap)

ruling party-voting system

Ruling party seeks to adopt ranked choice voting system for leadership election

SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- The ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Tuesday decided to seek a revision to its party rules to adopt a ranked choice voting system in an election to pick its new leader next month.

Under the system, voters can rank candidates in order of preference on their ballots. If no candidate wins a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and the votes are redistributed according to the voters' next preferences until one candidate secures a majority, eliminating the need for a separate runoff election.

During a closed-door meeting of the party's supreme council earlier in the day, the DP decided to revise the party rules to explicitly allow the use of the ranked choice voting system, Rep. Kang Jun-hyeon, the party's senior spokesperson, told reporters. The DP's national convention is set for Aug. 17.

The move comes as lawmakers aligned with former DP leader Jung Chung-rae have opposed the adoption of the ranked choice voting system, arguing it violates the party's rules.

Rep. Lee Sung-yoon, a pro-Jung lawmaker, resigned from the council in protest against the party's move, calling it "completely unacceptable."

"I have consistently objected to and opposed pushing ahead with a measure that violates the party constitution and rules, with only a month remaining before the national convention and just a week before candidate registration," Rep. Lee told reporters.

During the meeting, the supreme council also voted down a proposal to introduce a system that reserves one of the five elected supreme council member seats for a young party member.

The DP plans to hold a party affairs committee meeting at 4 p.m. to seek approval of the revision.

Former leader Jung declared his bid for reelection this week, turning the upcoming leadership election into a five-way race. He will compete against former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok and Reps. Song Young-gil and Ko Min-jung, and former Gangjin council member Kim Bo-mi.

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