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Embattled Grand National Party chairman Kang Jae-up is set to announce an array of reform measures as early as today in a bid to patch up an aggravating internal feud following the party's electoral debacle, a GNP official said yesterday.
Party spokesperson Na Kyung-won also said Kang is unlikely to step down despite mounting calls for the resignation of party leaders.
Doubts have been cast over whether his measures will ease growing intra-party conflicts which threaten to lead to further divisions between the GNP's two leading presidential hopefuls.
Rep. Lee Jae-oh, a supreme council member and Lee supporter, last week threatened to quit the post and press for Kang's resignation if he thinks his reform plan falls short. Two of five supreme council members - Chun Yu-ok and Kang Chang-il - stepped down in order to "take responsibility" for the party's electoral losses.
Park opposes the resignation of Kang Jae-sup who was known to be a close confidant.
In last week's by-elections, which came eight months before the Dec. 19 presidential election, the GNP won only one of thee contested parliamentary seats and one out of six races for chiefs of local administrations. Minor party candidates and independents fared quite well while the Uri Party continued its string of consecutive electoral defeats.
GNP defeats were a blow to a party which had swept previous by-elections and local elections since 2005 amid overwhelming popularity.
Its electoral setback deepened a row between its two presidential aspirants who played a blame game over the election results. The intensifying hostility between the pair reignited speculation that either of the two may run as an independent if he or she sees a slim chance of winning the party's nomination. Lee and Park are dominating the presidential race with around 40 percent and 20 percent public support, respectively.
Denying the speculation about divisions, GNP spokeswoman Na Kyung-won said yesterday, "I make it clear that the GNP is the one. I promise that the GNP will not commit the folly of letting incompetent leftist forces prolong their grip on power and driving people into agony."
The conservative GNP failed to win either of the two previous presidential elections, in 1997 and 2002.
The planned reform measures to be announced by Kang will likely include ways to better manage the party's presidential nominating process.
Kang planned to announce the plans at a news conference on May 1, a day after a current parliamentary session ends. The plan will also include tightening its code of ethics in an effort to root out chronic corruption.
The conservative party had pledged to root out corruption after it was found to have accepted a significant amount of illegal political funds during the 2002 presidential election. However, it was beset by a series of corruption scandals shortly before the latest polls, contributing to its stinging electoral defeats.
By Jin Hyun-joo
(hjjin@heraldm.com)
2007.04.30
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