SEOUL, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok was elected on Monday as the new chief of the ruling Democratic Party.
Kim secured the top spot in the leadership race with 54.08 percent of the total votes, beating Jung Chung-rae, who pursued his second consecutive term as the party head but finished second at 45.92 percent.
After failing to win an absolute majority in the first round, Kim clinched the leadership in a runoff through a ranked-choice voting system.
In the party's newly introduced system, voters rank their choices from first to third preference. If no candidate wins a majority, the second-preference votes of the lowest-ranking candidate are redistributed to determine the winner.
The leadership election combined 70 percent from delegate and registered party member votes with 30 percent of national public opinion polling.
After the election, Kim expressed his gratitude to the party members and the public, saying that he would build a creative, horizontal relationship of cooperation that supports the president and the government.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung emphasized party unity in his video congratulatory message to the party's national convention.
"Our Democratic Party has always been at its strongest when we stood as one. Until now, we have fiercely debated and competed in a true democratic way, but starting today, we must unite firmly once again centered around the new leadership," Lee said.
The former premier's election signaled a preference among the party members for the ruling party's legislative backing of policies and unified party-government cooperation in the second year of the Lee administration.
The new party chief, however, was tasked with healing intra-party divisions and uniting rival factions after a deeply competitive race.
Yonhap news agency said Kim faced the crucial dual responsibility of revitalizing state governance momentum and healing internal divisions amid a declining approval rating for President Lee. ■