Democratic Party leadership candidates Reps. Kim Min-seok (from left), Jung Chung-rae and Song Young-gil salute the national flag during a joint campaign speech event in Gangwon Province on Sunday. (Yonhap) Prime Minister Rep. Kim Min-seok is leading by a narrow margin in the ruling Democratic Party leadership race, indicating that the final outcome is likely to hinge on Seoul and the Jeolla provinces. After the first three of six regional rounds of voting among eligible party members, Kim was leading with 76,844 votes, or 45.42 percent. Former party chair Rep. Jung Chung-rae was next with 75,380 votes, or 44.56 percent, leaving a gap of just 1,464 votes, or 0.86 percentage points. Six-term lawmaker Rep. Song Young-gil was third with 16,955 votes, or 10.02 percent.In the latest round of voting, announced Saturday and spanning Jeju and Incheon, Kim received 22,537 of 47,198 total votes, accounting for 47.75 percent. Jung got 19,862 votes, or 42.08 percent, while Song took 4,799 votes, or 10.17 percent.Incheon was the first in the greater Seoul area to cast ballots in the leadership race, despite holding a relatively small portion of the party's eligible members. Kim's victory in the city is considered to have added momentum to his bid for the top party post.Meanwhile, with the two leading contenders so far failing to gain a clear lead, there is growing speculation that the race will come down to the capital and Jeolla provinces.The Democratic Party will announce results from Gangwon, Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province on Sunday. The results had not been disclosed as of press time.After that, voting will move to the Honam region — Gwangju and North and South Jeolla provinces — on Aug. 15 and finally Gyeonggi Province and Seoul on Aug. 16. In particular, Honam is expected to be a key battleground, as around 33 percent of the party's more than 1.5 million eligible members are concentrated in the region.Seoul and Gyeonggi are also home to about 580,000 eligible members, meaning the final two regional blocs account for a large majority of the electorate.The party will announce its new leader and five Supreme Council members at its national convention Aug. 17.Both leading candidates have expressed confidence about their prospects."If the second week's regional contests are neck and neck, Honam will swing significantly," Jung said Wednesday on journalist Kim Ou-joon's YouTube channel."I will win if we tie after the second week," Kim Min-seok said on the same channel Thursday.