Gwangju Education Chief Race: Jeong Seong-hong Tops Citizen Vote – What This Means for Education Reform

In a process led by Gwangju civic organizations to unify democratic citizen candidates for the Gwangju Education Superintendent position, Jeong Seong-hong, former head of the Gwangju chapter of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU), emerged as the frontrunner.

The Gwangju Education Superintendent Citizen Candidate Nomination Committee reported that Jeong garnered the most votes in the unification primary, which ran from the 7th until today.

Jeong faced off against Kim Yong-tae, another former head of the KTU Gwangju chapter, and Oh Kyung-mi, who previously served as the director of the Gwangju Education Office. The primary results were determined by combining online votes from over 35,000 citizens (50%) and a general public opinion poll (50%).

The public opinion poll was conducted in three rounds. To address concerns about title imbalances among candidates, each contender used two different titles once, while the initial poll was conducted without any titles.

The nomination committee is scheduled to hold a press conference on the 11th at 11 a.m. at Jeonil Building 245 to officially announce the primary results and the nominated candidate.

Out of consideration for the other two candidates, the committee has decided not to disclose specific vote counts.