GNP Calls for `Cleaning-up of Corruptions and Change of Regime`

Candidate Lee Hoi-Chang has been chosen as the presidential candidate of the Grand National Party (GNP) for the 16th presidential election. Presidential candidate nomination race of the GNP, which started at Incheon on April 13 and expanded to the 12 regional primaries, has closed on May 9 with the Seoul primary.

Candidate Lee, who took 2,321 votes (47.9 percent) of the votes cast in the Seoul regional primary and recorded a total tally of 17,481 votes (68.1percent) in the race, is scheduled to give a presidential candidacy acceptance speech after going through the nomination procedure of the national convention on May 10. The GNP will also select supreme council members in the convention to install a new leadership line-up.

As GNP presidential candidate is chosen following the trails of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), the presidential election campaign will surely begin in earnest, and the local elections to be held in a month is expected to heat up.

Candidate Lee is likely to present measures of taking out the bribery and corruption of power elites including the relatives of the president in his presidential candidate acceptance speech. Candidate Lee is also considering specific measures to prevent the irregularities of the president`s relatives including assigning an authority to investigate irregularities of the relatives of the president to the Corruption Prevention Committee, disclosing the details of personal properties before the inauguration and after the expiration of the presidency, and restricting appointments to public offices.

Candidate Lee severely criticized the regime in the Seoul primary held in Jamsil Indoor Gymnasium on May 9, `Currently the regime is itching with desire to `kill Lee Hoi-Chang` to cover up the corruptions, scandals and the irregularities.`

The GNP also held in the day `the local elections victory resolution and power elite irregularities protest demonstration` and reiterated its demand for the appointment of special counselors, a parliamentary probe, and a public hearing to expose the truth of irregularities of three sons of President Kim Dae-Jung.

In the Seoul primary, candidate Choe Byung-Yul received 1,668 votes (34.5 percent), candidate Lee Bu-Young received 743 votes (15.3 percent), and candidate Rhee Shang-Hi got 109 votes (2.3 percent).

chang@donga.com