Translation result.
Ha 35.5%·Han 28.5%·Park 26.0%
Ha Jung-woo, the Blue House senior secretary for AI future planning, resigned on April 27 and is expected to officially announce his candidacy in the special election for Busan’s Buk-gap National Assembly seat. The contest now appears set to be a three-way race between Ha; Park Min-sik, the former minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs who has been mentioned as the People Power Party’s candidate; and Han Dong-hoon, a former party leader who was expelled from the People Power Party and has indicated he will run as an independent.
A senior Democratic Party official said Ha will step down from his senior secretary post on April 27 and attend the talent recruitment event on the 29th. At a field Supreme Council meeting in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, Democratic Party leader Jeong Cheong-rae said he met with Ha on April 26 and persuaded him to run, believing Ha would be the right lawmaker to succeed and build on Rep. Jeon Jae-su’s constituency. White House spokesperson Jeon Eun-soo also submitted her resignation and plans to run in the special election for the Asan seat in South Chungcheong Province.
Ha’s entry into the Buk-gap race has raised questions about whether conservative candidates will try to unify behind a single contender. In a MediaTomato survey commissioned by NewsTomato and conducted April 24–25 among 802 Buk-gap district residents aged 18 and over (95% confidence level; margin of error ±3.5 percentage points), 35.5% of respondents chose Ha. Former leader Han received 28.5%, and former minister Park polled 26.0%. Opposition to a Han–Park candidate unification stood at 46.3%, slightly higher than the 37.7% who supported it.
Pro-Han (pro–Han Dong-hoon) circles say Han’s momentum has officially begun. Rep. Bae Hyun-jin told SBS radio that Han is “effectively the People Power Party’s candidate” and argued that favorable public sentiment for Han would likely benefit Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon.
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