[사설] The nomination war between the ruling and opposition parties has just risen, and victory or defeat in the general election depends on innovation.

With the Lunar New Year holiday over, the ruling and opposition parties began work on nominations for the April 10 general elections. Starting with Jongno, Seoul yesterday, the People Power Party began interview screening applicants for nominations in Seoul, Gwangju, and Jeju. Starting tomorrow, we plan to sequentially announce the candidates and primary candidates. The Democratic Party of Korea plans to notify 31 incumbent lawmakers, who are in the bottom 20%, of the deduction of points from the primary as early as this week. With the launch of the New Reform Party, a new integrated party in the third zone, the results of the nominations of the two major parties, which will continue until early March, are a decisive factor in determining the outcome of this general election.

Ultimately, the essence of innovative nominations, which both the ruling and opposition parties are calling for, is to infuse new blood. This point is also revealed in the results of public opinion polls related to the recent general election. The responses showing sympathies with the ’86 activist liquidation theory’ and the ‘prosecution dictatorship liquidation theory’ that the ruling and opposition parties each put forward as general election issues are almost similar. This is evidence that voters are hoping that a new person will be selected regardless of the ruling or opposition party in this general election. It is highly likely that the results of the general election will differ depending on how well the People Power Party and the Democratic Party present nomination results that meet the public’s demands.

We must also not forget to minimize nomination conflicts and noise. The Democratic United Party, the predecessor of the Democratic Party, was soundly defeated by the Saenuri Party, which was reforming under Emergency Response Committee Chairman Park Geun-hye, as a large number of pro-Roh (pro-Roh Moo-hyun) figures were nominated during the 19th general election in 2012, sparking conflict between pro-Roh and non-Roh factions. Four years later, in the 20th general election, the Saenuri Party was shunned by voters as factional conflict arose due to the ‘Royal Seal Uprising’. Both the ruling and opposition parties should act as teachers on the other hand. If the two major parties turn a blind eye to innovative nominations this time and focus only on the battle of interests by factions such as pro-Yun (pro-Yun Seok-yeol), anti-Yun, pro-Myeong (pro-Lee Jae-myung), and anti-Myeong, they will inevitably be judged severely by the public.

Lee Nak-yeon, co-representative of the New Reform Party, said yesterday, “I think we need to win at least 30 seats in this general election,” adding, “Only then will we be able to prevent the tyranny of the two parties.” To do so, we will need to present a vision and alternative that will make voters who are disappointed with the two major parties nod their heads. However, the New Reform Party only appears to be leaning on the ‘anti-Yoon Seok-yeol’ and ‘anti-Lee Jae-myung’ sentiments, such as “The most active reform that the people want is the end of the meaningless competition between President Yoon Seok-yeol and Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung” (Co-CEO Lee Jun-seok). It is difficult to find policies or values ​​shared by the four new reform parties. If this is the case, it will not be able to avoid criticism that it is a political party hastily created for the general election.

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