Lee`s Brother Urged to Give Up Candidacy

Some 40 Grand National Party candidates running in the upcoming general elections accused Sunday their party leadership of having failed to live up to the principles and standards in the candidate nomination process and called for the presidential office and the party leadership to apologize to the public. They also urged National Assembly Vice Speaker Lee Sang-deuk, President Lee Myung-bak’s older brother, to give up his candidacy.

The candidates, including Sim Jae-cheol, Park Chan-sook, Gong Seong-jin, Cha Myeong-jin and Jin Su-hee, held a press conference on the same day at the party headquarters and said, “Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Lee, who is responsible for aggravating public sentiment toward the party, should drop out of the election race and stay out of the state affairs.”

Given those candidates are counted as pro-Lee members and nominated for electoral districts, this move is expected to create quite a stir inside the ruling party in the run-up to the general elections. Some party officials translate it as a coup d`etat or as a power struggle inside the ruling camp.

They said, “The Lee Myung-bak administration, launched amid much hope and public expectation, and the GNP are now being estranged from the people.” They also warned, “If things go unchanged, the party will fail to obtain a majority of the assembly seats, which is a must in supporting the current administration, and the people will turn their back to the party.”

They said, “The fundamental reasons for the deplorable situations lies in the abuse of power of the disbanded presidential transition committee, the incomplete screening of minister-nominees, the botched party nominations for the general elections and the party’s negligence in taking the lead. “(President Lee) should call those who caused the troubles in the nomination process to account and dismiss them.”

In response, an official of the presidential office said, “Their request for Cheong Wa Dae to take all the responsibilities doesn’t make sense, given Cheong Wa Dae never intervened in the party nominations,” On the matter of Lee’s brother, he said, “It’s up to the party and the vice speaker.”

Rep. Kim Deok-ryong, who failed to grab a party ticket to the elections, announced that he would not run in the elections. He said, “Vice Speaker Lee’s courageous decision to give up his nomination will be the first step in settling the situation.”

jkmas@donga.com