Lee Myung-bak Wins GNP Primary

Former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak was nominated as presidential candidate of the Grand National Party for the 17th presidential election yesterday.

The GNP declared Lee as its presidential candidate at its presidential nomination convention at Olympic Park in eastern Seoul on August 20.

Lee garnered 64,216 (49.06%) of the total 130,898 electoral college votes, and 16,868 (51.55%) of the popular vote. The electoral college is composed of 20% representatives, 30% party members, and 30% general public.

Former GNP representative Park Geun-hye collected 64,648 (49.39%) college votes, beating Lee by 423 ballots, but was outnumbered by Lee in the popular vote by 2,884 ballots.

Accordingly, the former Seoul mayor with 81,084 total votes, defeated the former GNP chairwoman with 78,632 total votes. Sideline hopefuls Won Hui-ryong earned 2,398 votes and Hong Jun-pyo earned 1,503.

The GNP’s primary election has been competitive for fourteen months between two strong presidential candidates. The next step for the party is to work toward winning the upcoming election with Lee Myung-bak by establishing a unified election polling committee.

As Lee is now the GNP’s presidential candidate, he will now have to compete with several minor presidential candidates from the ruling camp, including Sohn Hak-gyu.

Lee said in an acceptance speech that, “From this moment, whether you supported me or not, we should be one and I will try to realize the public’s hopes changing the current government.”

Lee stressed that, “I ask our dear candidate Park Geun-hye to play a pivotal role in restoring the party’s power.”

He also hinted that he intends to join with other parties in his acceptance speech by saying that, “The party and I will welcome everybody who agrees with the need for changing the current government and who wants to build a first-class nation.”

Meanwhile, Park said after the primary election that, “I accepted the election result and as of now, I am going back to my place and will try everything in my power to change the government.” She also appealed to her supporters, “Please forget everything that happened during the primary campaign and be passionate enough to change the government.”

phark@donga.com