New MDP Chairman Hahn Hwa-Kap

The ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), facing the presidential election in December and the local election in June, organized a new party leadership by selecting eight supreme council members including chairman Hahn Hwa-Kap in the party convention on April 27.

Rep. Hahn selected as the chairman since he received the largest block of votes, 5,961 votes (58.0 percent) among the 10,269 votes cast in the electoral college for the supreme council election, which was held in Chamsil Indoor Stadium in Seoul in the day.

In the election, where one delegate may write down consecutively four favorite candidates, eight candidates, including Rep. Hahn, Reps. Chyung Dai-Chul (5,163 votes) and Park Sang-Cheon (4,401 votes), former chairman Han Kwang-Ok, Reps Lee Hyup, Choo Mi-Ae, Shin Ki-Nam, former party chief of South Kyoungsang Province Kim Tae-Rang, have been elected as supreme party council members. But Rep. Kim Ok-Du, who is a central figure of Dongkyo-Dong faction, failed to enter the council as he took the tenth place.

The MDP supreme council is composed of eleven members including floor leader Chung Kyun-Hwan, two appointees of the chairman, in addition to the eight elected members.

MDP adapted a revised party platform at the party convention, in which an establishment of Democratic Party structures such as the primary systems and an expansion of productive welfares are emphasized.

Yong-Gwan Jung yongari@donga.com