[Editorial] Time to Stop the Battle Over Primary Rules

Grand National Party leader Kang Jae-sup yesterday offered an arbitration proposal on party rules for primaries to the party’s two rival candidates, formal Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak and former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye, and appealed to their patriotism and asked them to “review and please accept.” He also said, “The one who compromises will win the coming primary.” He meant winning people’s hearts and minds in pursuit of greater politics was more important than being obsessed with changing rules for small gains.

Kang’s version of the rules has a cap on votes from non-member citizens, which is equivalent to 20 percent of the Electoral College. His version suggests the party should consider the voter turnout of non-member citizens to be 67 percent to further reflect opinions of the general public when they calculate votes of party members, delegates, and non-party members, even though the real turnout may be less than 67 percent. The voter turnout of non-member citizens usually stands at around 30 percent.

Candidate Lee accepted the suggestion, but the Park camp virtually rejected it, saying, “If one changes the rules endlessly until one gets the winning rules, it will be an endless battle.”

If the Park camp ultimately rejects the arbitration proposal, then the National Committee meeting scheduled to be held on May 21 will vote on the proposal. But some say the leadership should resign all together and some say there is the possibility of Park’s withdrawal. Various scenarios are predicted. Some senior members criticize Kang’s proposal as a plan to sway the party leadership in an attempt to seize more power. It is like adding oil to the fire for one’s own sake.

What brought this ugly situation about is that the two main candidates are under the wrong impression that what matters most is winning the primaries. The two camps think they will win no matter what. If one of the two leaves the party and runs as an independent, they think they still have high chance of winning because of the Uri Party break-up. If that happens, there would be four presidential candidates, one from the Uri Party, one from the newly launched party founded by former Uri members, Park and Lee. It is an impossibly optimistic view. What if the Uri Party and the new party agree to have one unified candidate?

No rules of any game can satisfy all its players. There are one hundred more days to go until the August primaries and seven months more to go until the presidential election. We don’t know what will happen. Things can change. What the general public really is concerned about is who is capable of running this country well and has vision. The two GNP candidates should end this rivalry and prove that they can meet the needs of the public.