South Korea’s People Power Party Feuds Over Leader Jang Dong-hyeok With Local Vote Near

6·3 local elections and parliamentary by-elections are 40 days away, and infighting in the People Power Party is intensifying over calls for leader Jang Dong-hyeok to step down. Pressure has grown amid controversy over a U.S. trip and the party’s lowest support level since its founding, but Jang has signaled he will stay, suggesting the dispute will continue.

Jang on April 24 rejected demands that he resign. In a Facebook post, he wrote, "Stepping down as party leader because the situation is not good is not what a responsible politician does." He added, "Since becoming party leader, I have run toward victory in the local elections," and said he would "finish the local elections to the best of my ability and be evaluated with confidence." He moved to tamp down speculation about his future about three hours after saying he would think about his position.

Earlier that morning, Jang told reporters at the National Assembly that he would consider whether resigning 40 days before the local elections would truly fulfill his responsibility as leader and whether it would help the party win. He was responding after a poll released the previous day showed the party’s support at 15%.

In the National Barometer Survey released April 23, the Democratic Party’s support stood at 48% and the People Power Party’s at 15%. The poll was conducted April 20-22 by Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research and Hankook Research through telephone interviews of 1,005 adults age 18 and older. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. (For details, see the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.)

Calls for Jang to step aside continued within the party. Rep. Bae Hyun-jin, who chairs the party’s Seoul chapter, said Jang’s news conference was the first time he had shown a willingness to make a decision, whether by moving to a second-line role or resigning, for the sake of candidates and the party. She warned that May 14 was Jang’s final deadline, saying that after all main candidates are registered, "there will be no Jang Dong-hyeok left in the People Power Party."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, the party’s candidate for Seoul mayor, also urged Jang to pull back. In a media interview, Oh said, "The time has come when restraint or a decision is needed," adding that candidates "honestly" want Jang to be less visible because they believe that would help. Citing the party’s lowest support since its founding, Oh said the leader should feel responsible and reduce his public activities, effectively calling for Jang to move to the sidelines.

Others defended Jang. Twenty-eight party committee chairs who are not lawmakers called for an end to efforts to shake him. Park Jong-jin, head of the party’s Incheon chapter, said at a National Assembly news conference that demanding the resignation of a legitimate leader elected by party members and guaranteed a term was an act that would ruin the election. He asked whether the party could win by excluding a leader who has the support of more than half of party members and running a separate campaign committee. Park said that with the local elections close, it was undesirable to undermine the leadership system regardless of who leads, and the party should unite.

With the local elections nearing and Jang publicly refusing to resign, he appears unlikely to step down before voting ends. Still, some in the party say the leadership turmoil has become an election risk as the leader is distracted by questions about his future.