South Korea's minority opposition party selects lawmaker Lee Jun-seok as candidate for next presidential election

On the 18th, South Korea's opposition party, the New Reform Party, selected Rep. Lee Jun-seok (former party leader) as its candidate for the next presidential election.
Ham Ik-pyeong, the election commissioner for the New Reform Party, said at the National Assembly that afternoon.
The party held a press conference and announced, "We have selected Rep. Lee as the 21st presidential candidate of the New Reform Party." The New Reform Party conducted an exclusive interview with Rep. Lee, who is running as a presidential candidate, on the 16th and 17th of this month.
An online vote was held, with 39,914 out of 77,364 party members participating. Of these, 37,046 (92.81%) voted in favor of Lee as their presidential candidate.
The number of voters who voted against was 2,868 (7.19%). This resulted in the New Reform Party being in favor of an early presidential election that may be held following the impeachment trial of President Yoon Seok-yeol.
Ham said, "It seems like the selection was rushed, but even at the time of the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye, some political parties had already decided to run for the presidential election before the impeachment.
There is a precedent for candidates being decided in advance."