SEOUL-- Former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung was elected as the new leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Sunday, taking on a mandate to recoup the party after its consecutive defeats in the presidential and local elections.

Lee, who was elected to the National Assembly in June's by-election after losing to President Yoon Suk-yeol in March's presidential vote, won 77.77 percent of the vote against Rep. Park Yong-jin's 22.23 percent in the race that wound up at Sunday's national convention.

It marked the highest-ever vote share for a DP chairperson since former chair and prime minister Lee Nak-yeon's 60.77 percent in the 2020 national convention.

His victory had all but been officially decided long before Sunday's national convention, as he had been an overwhelming front-runner in the race that narrowed to a two-way contest between Lee and Park after a minor candidate, Rep. Kang Hoon-sik, dropped out earlier this month.

"With a willing heart to carve out my flesh and grind my bones, I will wholly throw myself into building a completely new DP," Lee said in his acceptance speech. "The national convention will be recorded in history as a day we started the march of victory in the general elections two years later, local elections four years later and the presidential election five years later."

Lee also called for a meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol, saying he is willing to help the government and the ruling party if they go in the right direction.

During his two-year term as chair, Lee will take on the mission to unite the liberal bloc tattered by faction politics and election losses, and lead the party to victory in the general elections scheduled for April 2024.

The DP has been without a chair since March after the previous leadership resigned en masse following the party's loss in the presidential election. An emergency steering committee has taken helm of the party since then.

While Lee was seen as the dominant front-runner, his bid for chairmanship had been a point of contention among party members and supporters, with opponents claiming he should take responsibility for the DP's election defeats.

In the June local elections, the DP managed to win only five of the 17 metropolitan mayorships and provincial governorships up for grabs. Lee himself was elected to the National Assembly representing Incheon's Gyeyang-B district.

The former presidential candidate pledged to take "real responsibility" by transforming the party into a "winning" party and carry out reforms to rebuild the DP into a pragmatic party focused on livelihood issues.

Park, a younger candidate who vocally protested against Lee's chairmanship bid and held him accountable for the elections losses, called for a generational change to revamp the embattled party.

President Yoon Suk-yeol also congratulated Lee on his victory.

"I anticipate working together to solve various pending issues for the people and people's livelihoods amid tough times," Yoon said, according to a written briefing by his spokesperson, Kim Eun-hye.

Source: Yonhap News Agency