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PPP leader Jang Dong-hyuk attends an on-site Supreme Council meeting calling for a veto of the "bad law" abolishing prosecutors' supplementary investigative power, held in front of the fountain at the former presidential office site in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 3rd. / Reporter Song Eui-ju

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk is considering announcing a reform plan in mid-month that would overhaul the party's overall operations. It is expected to include expanding party members' authority, revising the party charter and bylaws, reworking the evaluation system for elected officials, improving nomination criteria, and realigning policy direction. Within the party, there is a degree of anticipation surrounding Jang's reform push, which comes as he approaches his first year in office and looks to restructure the party's operating system.

According to political circles on the 3rd, the core of "Jang Dong-hyuk's reform plan" is expanding party members' participation and influence in the candidate nomination process. Jang has consistently emphasized building a "party-member-centered party," and the Task Force for Reforming the Evaluation of Elected Officials, launched on the 28th of last month, was also created with the aim of reflecting party members' opinions in the nomination process.

The task force is reviewing ways to comprehensively evaluate lawmakers based on their legislative activity, contributions to the party, efforts to counter the ruling party, and adherence to party positions, while also incorporating party members' views into that evaluation. Follow-up work — including revising the party charter and bylaws, reorganizing the party structure, and recruiting new talent — is expected to continue through the end of the year.

Party leadership maintains that the reform plan is not aimed at any particular faction, but is instead an institutional improvement meant to make nomination criteria more objective and predictable. The goal is to boost the credibility of the nomination process by incorporating legislative performance and party contribution into evaluation criteria and formally institutionalizing party members' input.

Some within the party have voiced support for the need for reform. One senior lawmaker said that regardless of other matters, the party needs to take a hard look at its efforts to counter the ruling party, noting that this is a time when the opposition should be standing firmly against the administration and ruling party, yet that stance has been largely absent — reform is needed to create a new atmosphere within the party.

Observers inside and outside the party suggest this reform plan could become an opportunity to reshape not just the party charter and bylaws, but the PPP's nomination system and overall direction as a party. Attention is on whether Jang's "party-member-centered" reform plan can boost trust in the nomination system and help reshape the party's underlying character.

                                                                                                                Lee Che-ri