Ha Jung-woo Expected to Decide This Week on Running in Busan Buk-gap By-Election

Ha Jung-woo, the presidential office’s senior secretary for AI (artificial intelligence) Future Planning, is expected to announce this week whether he will run in the National Assembly by-election in Busan’s Buk-gap district.

The presidential office said Monday that Ha is likely to state his position soon after accompanying President Lee Jae-myung later in the day for talks at the presidential office with Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind. Ha is reported to be leaning toward entering the race after last-minute deliberations.

Under the Public Official Election Act, a public official must resign by May 4 — 30 days before the vote — to run in the by-elections.

Democratic Party leaders have repeatedly urged Ha to run in the Busan Buk-gap contest. Party leader Jung Cheong-rae met Ha the previous day and formally asked him to enter the race.

Ha did not attend a sports event held by the alumni association of Gupo Elementary School in Busan’s Buk District, where other opposition-aligned contenders for the Buk-gap by-election were present, including Park Min-sik, a former minister of patriots and veterans affairs, and Han Dong-hoon, a former People Power Party leader.

Separately, presidential spokesperson Jeon Eun-su is widely seen as the leading candidate for a strategic nomination in the by-election in Asan-eul, South Chungcheong Province. The seat became vacant in June last year when then-lawmaker Kang Hoon-sik was appointed presidential chief of staff as the Lee administration took office.

Meanwhile, a Realmeter survey commissioned by Energy Economy Newspaper and conducted April 20-24 among 2,509 adults nationwide found Lee’s job approval rating at 62.2%, down 3.3 percentage points from the previous week.

Realmeter said that despite positive signals such as outcomes from summits with India and Vietnam and the Kospi reaching a record high, the rating appeared to fall as the Middle East war pushed up oil prices and inflation, increasing pressure on household finances.

The poll was conducted by automated response system (ARS) calls using randomly generated mobile numbers (100%). The response rate for the presidential job-approval question was 5.4%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For party support, the response rate was 4.3%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

More details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.