Lee and Park in Conflict over Primary

Two leading presidential candidates from the Grand National Party, Lee Myung-bak, former Seoul mayor, and Park Geun-hye, former GNP chairwoman are at odds over how to conduct a preference poll, which will consist of 20 percent (40,000 people) of the primary population of 200,000.

Park’s side has argued that if there were absentees among the 40,000, it should be reflected in the result. On the contrary, the side of Mr. Lee claims that the number of ballots should be 40,000 without absentees.

The party’s supreme council discussed the matter, but could not reach an agreement. Furthermore, the special amendment committee on constitution and rules had a meeting on March 25, but failed to reach a conclusion. Both camps have shown the attitude that they would rather nullify the primary accord than give up their argument.

Lee camp said, “ Change the way we reflect the poll.”

Legislator Park Hyung-joon, who was a former agent for the former Seoul mayor said on March 18 in the last primary committee meeting, “The result of the poll should be 40,000 votes for a certain candidate without absentees, and the number should be added to the vote results of the party’s delegation (40,000), the party’s members (60,000) and the public electoral college (60,000).

He claimed that If 40 percent of people support candidate A and 20 percent support the candidate B, 40 percent of all people who are in a gray area should not be reflected in the poll, and 60 percent of people who support a certain candidate should be calculated as 100 percent. If 40 percent of people who would not respond to a question would be reflected in the result, candidate A would have 16,000 ballots and B would have 8,000 ballots.

According to his argument, candidate A would enjoy a 67 percent approval rating, which would be calculated to 26,800 people, and candidate B would have a 23 percent approval rating, which would be 9,200 votes.

The ballot gap in the original poll would be 8,000 votes, but the gap would be increased to 17,600 according to the Lee’s calculation. This could affect the result of the election.

The GNP has taken the original method in most candidate primaries after an amendment to the party’s constitution and rules was passed in October 2005.

Lee has a 20 percent approval rating lead over Park. If the polling method is changed, it would confer a positive effect on Lee.

Former agent Park said, “Half of the party members would probably participate in the election, but participation rate from the public will not that high. Therefore, to reflect sentiment from both the public and the party, 40,000 respondents without absentees in the poll should be reflected in the result.”

Park’s side, “ This is preposterous”-

Lawmaker Kim Jae-won, who was Park’s former agent, contended, “Since the refusal to respond to a question is one way to express one’s thought, disregarding absentees would mar the spirit of democracy and be against common sense.” He added, “The census result could be distorted if we follow Lee’s calculation method.”

Kim said, “According to the Lee’s claim, 160,000 should be regarded as voters without absentees in the elector vote, which is preposterous.” He added, “Park Hyung-joon has not mentioned this issue before in the primary committee, and he raised the issue at the last meeting. I doubt that he has any intention to negotiate on primary election method.”

He said, “If Lee continuously insists on his unreasonable demands, the primary committee should be reorganized and all the issues, including the date for the primary, should be discussed again.”

The vice president of the committee, Maeng Hyung-kyu, announced, “We were able to agree on August to have the primary election because Lee made compromise on this issue. At this point, when a mutual agreement has been reached, agents cannot impair the decision by drawing an excessive argument.”

The two camps are conflicting over other several issues, including how to organize the election management committee and candidate confirmation hearings, and whether it should be a one-day election or a regional tour.

sunshade@donga.com