Posted February. 15, 2004 22:51,
As the disputes proliferate over the demand for the resignation of the current leadership and chairman Choe Byung-yul in the opposition Grand National Party (GNP), the conflict inside the party has increasingly turned into a standoff between the leadership and minorities.
In a February 14 meeting with women leaders of the South Gyeongsang province chapter of the Korea Veterans Association, Choe said, While nominating candidates for the April General Assembly elections, I will overhaul the party even if it means the party will undergo womens labor pains.
Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, who heads the strategic planning committee, expressed support for the strengthening of Choes leadership and said, It amounts to damaging the party if they shake the leadership two months ahead of the elections.
Only the self-sacrifice of the leadership can offer a shortcut to the resolution of the crisis, a leading minority Rep. Nam Kyung-pil said on February 15, expressing his willingness to fight. Rep. Kim Moo-sung said, The inner circle, which has ruled the roost in the party, should be held responsible for the crisis, including the falling poll ratings and disputes over the candidate nomination process.
The aftershock of the conflict caused by the nomination process of legislator candidates further reverberated. As the partys screening committee for candidates has decided to use interviews, district votes, or opinion polls, they were criticized as rubber band principles, which raised questions of appropriateness and objectivity.
The case in point is district Eul in the city of Daegu: Hwang Su-gwan, a visiting professor of Yonsei University medical school, was initially the definite frontrunner in a three-headed race of Park Chang-dal and Suh Hoon. The committee canceled the vote as the race became overheated. The party classified the district as yet-to-be decided.
The GNP leadership has put off nominating former lawmaker Park Chang-jong as a candidate in the district Seo of Busan, on the pretext of the need for political consideration, although he is a standout in the polls. Regarding district Eul of the Goyang county of the Gyeonggi province, although Kim Yong-su, the current district party leader, is in a clear lead in a number of polls over Rep. Lee Geun-jin (who defected from the Millennium Democratic Party and joined the GNP before the presidential elections in 2002) the GNP has decided the district needs a vote to select a candidate. The minorities criticized that the GNP leadership unfairly favors a political defector.
Controversy over candidates past history has also surfaced.
A former government prosecutor and the most likely candidate for the city of Gunpo in the Gyeonggi province, asked to be identified only by the initial Y, was charged with taking bribes from Lee Won-ho who was implicated in the Yang Gil-seung financial scandal. Y received a three-month punitive pay cut. Concerning the charges against Y, his rivals said on February on 13, The GNP leadership has singled out him as a candidate even without an opinion poll, as it worried that he will be defeated in a vote. Is this the reformed nomination process? They demanded reconsideration.
In related news, former chairman Suh Chung-won, who has kept silent after being freed from prison as a result of the parliamentary resolution for his release, will announce soon that he will not run in the elections.