Overview
- Party officials said roughly 68% of responding dues-paying members backed a name change, with about 133,000 in favor out of 195,300 respondents from a pool of 774,000.
- The opposition launched a nationwide naming contest with outside-expert review and plans to finalize the new name before the Lunar New Year holiday.
- Leaders presented the move as a break from controversies tied to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, following chair Jang Dong-hyeok’s apology for the Dec. 2024 martial-law declaration.
- Critics in the Democratic Party and within the PPP warned that a new label without deeper reforms would be superficial, as the ruling party renews its push for a second special counsel into Yoon and his wife.
- A recent Realmeter poll put the PPP at 33.5% approval, down two points, with analysis pointing to electoral strains such as candidate shortages in Gyeonggi and crowded contests in Daegu.