Former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok won the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) leadership race, Monday, edging out former party leader Jung Chung-rae to become the party's next chairman for a two-year term.

Kim, 63, secured 55.94 percent of the vote, or 430,242 votes, at the party's national convention at the Daejeon Convention Center, against Jung's 44.06 percent (338,809 votes). Neither candidate cleared a majority in the initial count, so the party applied its new preferential voting rules, redistributing second-choice votes from supporters of Song Young-gil, the lowest-placed candidate. With those votes factored in, Kim's cumulative vote share reached 54.08 percent, while Jung finished at 45.92 percent.

The winner was determined by weighting votes from DPK delegates and dues-paying members at 70 percent and a public opinion poll at 30 percent.

This year's race also introduced another change from the last leadership election: delegate votes, once weighted roughly 17 times higher than those of individual dues-paying members, were counted on equal footing with rank-and-file ballots for the first time.

Kim had been widely expected to secure the party leadership after posting strong showings in most regional primaries, including in key DPK strongholds such as the Jeolla provinces and Seoul.

Experts say the party's split will complicate Kim's ability to govern the party at a time when President Lee Jae Myung's approval ratings remain low.

“Although Kim Min-seok won the leadership, governance will be challenging because the DPK does not operate under a collective leadership system. While there are no obstacles in theory, the opposing faction could nitpick every single issue during Supreme Council meetings,” Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said.