South Korea's Democratic Party adopts preference voting for leadership race

The ruling Democratic Party of South Korea announced that its upcoming leadership election on August 17 will use a "preference voting" system instead of a runoff. Under the new method, party members rank all candidates; if no one receives a majority, the lowest‑ranked candidate is eliminated and their votes are redistributed, allowing a winner to be declared on the same day. The party also plans to introduce a youth supreme‑council position and is considering lowering the age limit for youth members.

Separately, Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Young‑jin criticised supreme council member Lee Sung‑yoon for allegedly launching a campaign to defeat a specific candidate during the leadership contest. Kim urged Lee to resign from his council post, arguing that a supreme council member should not act as a judge and engage in partisan elimination efforts.