DP presidential nomination likely on Sunday; Lee Jae-myung maintains poll lead

The liberal Democratic Party of Korea could complete its presidential nomination as early as Sunday if any of the party's candidates wins a majority of votes, as the party's partially open primary is to end Sunday.

Ahead of the race among Democratic Party candidates is former party chair Rep. Lee Jae-myung. He has maintained a wide lead in the presidential election predictions since former President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment due to his martial law declaration in December.

The vote count for the liberal party members in the Jeolla provinces — considered a liberal stronghold in the southwestern part of South Korea — is set to take place Saturday. The primary outcome for the Greater Seoul Area of Incheon, Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, Jeju Island and Gangwon Province will be announced together Sunday.

Also on Sunday, the primary voting result of unaffiliated voters will be separately announced. In the Democratic Party's primary for the June presidential election, half of all votes are coming from bona fide party members nationwide, whereas the other half come from those who participate without partisan voter registration.

A televised debate for the three-way race is scheduled for Friday at 10 p.m.

If any of the three candidates — Lee, Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Dong-yeon and former South Gyeongsang Province Kim Kyoung-soo — wins more than half of the total votes at the primary, the leader will be immediately nominated as the party's candidate for the next president Sunday.

If none of the candidates managed to win with a majority of votes, the candidate with the most votes and the runner-up in Sunday's result will likely be put to the extra round of voting. The winner will likely be announced Thursday and nominated to run for president as the Democratic Party's candidate.

The Democratic Party nominee will register their candidacy with the election authorities on either May 10 or 11.

Voting outcomes for affiliated voters over the past weekend suggested that Lee gained about 90 percent of the primary votes in both Chungcheong provinces and Gyeongsang provinces. Lee formerly led the Democratic Party, which holds 170 seats out of 300 at the National Assembly, until he resigned from the post earlier in April to run for president.

Moreover, recent polls suggest that Lee is maintaining a significant gap with any other presidential hopefuls.

According to a Gallup Korea poll unveiled Friday, 38 percent among 1,005 respondents from all affiliations picked Lee as the most preferred candidate for the presidency. The figure remained unchanged from the previous week's poll.

Behind Lee were former conservative People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon with 8 percent and former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo with 7 percent.

Acting president and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who has yet to openly express his presidential bid, and former Land Minister Kim Moon-soo, won 6 percent of ratings at the poll, respectively.

The same poll indicated that the previous week that the ratings for acting President Han and Labor Minister Kim slightly dropped, while former People Power Party chair Han's rating edged up.