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| Rep. Yoo Seong-min of the ruling Saenuri Party enters his house in Daegu, Wednesday. He made his first public appearance after eight days amid the party's postponement of nominating him as a candidate in his election district there for the general election on April. 13. / Yonhap |
Ruling party makes no decision on former floor leader
By Kim Hyo-jin
Rep. Yoo Seong-min has left the Saenuri Party to run as an independent candidate in the April 13 general election.
While the party's nominations committee is postponing his nomination for the upcoming race, Yoo announced that he quit the party and run for a parliamentary seat, Wednesday.
"I'm leaving the party for a while. I will run in the election for justice," Yoo said during a press conference. "What the party has done over nominations was not democracy but a shameful and anachronistic political retaliation."
In order to run in the election as an independent, he must leave their party before the candidate registration period starts, according to the Election Law. The National Election Commission accepts registration for two days starting today.
The party's nominations committee controlled by loyalists to President Park Geun-hye has postponed announcing a candidate for Yoo's current constituency, Dong B district in Daegu, increasing pressure on him to leave the party.
Yoo, a former floor leader who is estranged from the President, is the last incumbent lawmaker whose candidacy remains undecided while the committee has almost completed nominations for the election.
"Today is not the last day for our deliberation on the nomination as it could last until March 25. It is the last day only for those who plan to leave the party (to run as an independent candidate)," Lee Hahn-koo, the head of the committee, said earlier that day, daring Yoo to make the first move.
Amid growing speculation on Yoo's departure, party Chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung strongly urged the committee to nominate him, clashing head-on with Park loyalists.
Kim, a de-facto leader of the party's mainstream, also requested the committee to reconsider the exclusion of some lawmakers including five-term veteran lawmaker Rep. Lee Jae-oh.
"I have clearly delivered my opinion that nominating Yoo is the right decision," Kim told reporters after a Supreme Council meeting held to discuss the situation.
"There was no way for the party leadership to change the situation because the nominations committee kept delaying making a decision," Kim said, denouncing it for worsening the matter.
Kim claimed Yoo's exclusion will impact the party negatively in the April polls during the meeting, Rep. Rhee In-je, a Supreme Council member, said in a media interview, echoing the similar view.
The nominations committee caused repercussions following the release of the latest nominations list last Tuesday, in which most lawmakers close to Rep. Yoo and former President Lee Myung-bak were excluded. The lawmakers denounced the committee, claiming it was pro-Park faction's "political retaliation" against them, and aiming to grab control of the party after the election.
Amid deepening factional conflicts, the committee delayed the nomination of Yoo for over a week, fearing a further backlash. Many Park loyalists failed to win a parliamentary ticket in the primaries held following the controversial nominations, and the party suffered a fall in approval rating according to the recent polls.
Yoo's move prompted additional departures of lawmakers excluded from the nominations.
Rep. Lee Jae-oh and Rep. Joo Ho-young, a three-term lawmaker and former minister of special affairs under the Lee Myung-bak administration, also quit the party, saying they had decided to run as an independent. They were one of the contentious figures excluded from the latest nominations.
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