DP's candidates push for votes in southwest while PPP's one-on-one debates start

Turning to the latest in the presidential primaries.

The Democratic Party candidates visited the party's stronghold southwest region on Thursday, to boost their votes as the primary closes on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the People Power Party's one-on-one debates started which will run until this weekend as well.

Our Kim Do-yeon has more.

With the voting for the Democratic Party of Korea members in what's known as the Honam region the traditional stronghold of the DP going on, the party's presidential primary contestants on Thursday all visited the region to push their candidacy.

The Honam region consists of the Jeolla-do provinces and Gwangju City.

Front-runner Lee Jae-myung visited Jeollabuk-do Province first where he shared his renewable energy plans and went on to visit Gwangju City located further south.

There, he visited the May 18 Pro-Democratization Movement sites and emphasized the importance of democracy, with a new election stemming from a president being impeached for declaring martial law.

The two trailing candidates Kim Kyung-soo and Kim Dong-yeon are also in the region, visiting key local points to meet as many people as possible.

The voting in this region closes on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the last set of regions for voting, the capital region, Gangwon-do Province, and Jeju, started on Thursday.

This wraps up on Sunday when the final winner will be announced at the party's convention.

Meanwhile, for the People Power Party, two one-on-one debates were held for the second round of its primary.

With the PPP race having no clear front-runner, these second-round debates are expected to be crucial.

Kim Moon-soo and Han Dong-hoon kicked them off.

As Kim is known to have been against Yoon's impeachment and Han was pro-impeachment, Kim questioned Han about his fallen relationship with former President Yoon.

One thing to keep an eye on in the PPP race is this aspect as some PPP electors still support Yoon and for the second round, the votes will be 50-percent PPP electors and 50-percent an open survey giving more weight to individual PPP electors.

A similar debate took place between Ahn Cheol-soo and Kim Moon-soo.

Ahn famously voted for Yoon's impeachment motion and Kim pointed out that Ahn even served as the Chair of the Presidential Transition Committee.

For Friday's two debates, Han Dong-hoon and Hong Joon-pyo picked each other for their slots, making their debate a three-hour-long one.

Kim Do-yeon, Arirang News.