Survey Shows Uri Realignment Support

President Roh announced that he had no intention to leave Uri Party, hinting that he is opposed to a possible political realignment, including joining forces with the minority Democratic Party. However, contrary to his will, a survey shows that most of the ruling Uri Party members think the political realignment is necessary whether President Roh leaves his party or not.

The survey was conducted by this newspaper on 109 lawmakers of Seoul’s Gyeonggi Province and Incheon on July 27. Participants were asked about the victory of Democratic Party member Chough Soon-hyung, defeating the Grand National Party and the ruling Uri party candidates in his constituency, Seongbuk-eul, in the July 26 by-elections.

Among the respondents were 28 Uri Party members and 19 GNP members.

27 Uri Party members (96.4%) from a total of 28 said a political realignment is necessary. On the question whether they think President Roh needs to leave the party, five said, “Yes”, four said, “I don’t care”, and seven said, “That depends on his decision.” Findings can be interpreted that most Uri members think political realignment should be done regardless of Roh’s move.

It was also found that Uri Party respondents think that the result of the by-elections do not mean the ruling party has lost its mandate, and the ruling party should lead the potential political realignment. With regard to the timing of the political realignment, 25 respondents (89.3%) said, “The result of the elections should not bring forward the realignment. We should go ahead with it after the regular session of the National Assembly.

However, most of the GNP members participating in the survey said that the ruling Uri Party lost its mandate. In regard to the ruling party’s loss of mandate, all 28 Uri Party members answering the survey said that they don’t think they lost. In contrast, 12 GNP respondents (63.1%) said, “They lost.” And two replied, “Their mandate has weakened.”

Meanwhile, 39 first term and reelected lawmakers of the ruling Uri Party announced that the political realignment issue should be discussed in a bipartisan manner in pursuit of a bigger cause, such as development of the nation and its politics, and the president and the government must not avoid people’s critics and demands any more.

Yong-Gwan Jung Jin-Kyun Kil yongari@donga.com leon@donga.com