Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) chairmanship candidates Reps. Lee Jae-myung, left, and Park Yong-jin shake hands ahead of a televised debate at local broadcaster MBC on Aug. 23. (Yonhap)

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) was set to elect former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung as its new leader in a national convention Sunday, handing him 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, has been an overwhelming front-runner in the DPK leadership race, collecting nearly 80 percent of the vote in primaries held so far.

The DPK leadership race has narrowed to a two-way contest between Lee and Rep. Park Yong-jin after a minor candidate, Rep. Kang Hoon-sik, dropped out earlier this month. Park has won only about 22 percent of the vote so far.

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

In the June local elections, the DPK 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 has 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 has vocally protested against Lee's chairmanship bid and held him accountable for the elections losses, has called for a generational change to revamp the embattled party. (Yonhap)