New Liberal Party Starts Nomination Race

Nine contenders of the liberal United New Democratic Party (UNDP) raise joined hands before a party debate held in Seoul, Monday. From left are Sohn Hak-kyu, former Gyeonggi governor; Rep. Rhyu Si-min; Kim Dookwan, former minister of government administration and home affairs; Rep. Chun Jung-bae; Rep. Han Myeong-sook; Rep. Shin Ki-nam; Chung Dong-young, former unification minister; Choo Mi-ae, former lawmaker; and Rep. Lee Hae-chan. / Yonhap

By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

The nomination race of the liberal party started Monday with all nine candidates promoting themselves as the right choice to beat Lee Myung-bak, the presidential candidate of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP).

Out of the nine United New Democratic Party (UNDP) members, four will be eliminated early next month, to make the race more efficient and appealing to voters.

The common denominator of all the candidates is that they are strong advocates of engaging North Korea.

But the nine are divided into two groups-pro-President Roh Moo-hyun and anti-Roh.

The anti-Roh candidates include former Gyeonggi Province governor Sohn Hak-gyu, former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, former lawmaker Chu Mi-ae and former justice minister Chun Jung-bae. Former prime ministers Lee Hae-chan and Han Myung-sook, former government administration and home affairs minister Kim Doo-kwan and former health and welfare minister Ryu Shi-min are strong supporters of President Roh.

Sohn is the front runner in the opinion polls, ahead of former Unification Minister Chung and former Prime Minister Lee.

But Sohn, the former Gyeonggi governor, is under attack from the rest of the candidates as he defected from the conservative GNP.

Sohn said he had created around 740,000 jobs during his Gyeonggi governorship, which is six times higher than Lee Myung-bak made during his term as Seoul mayor.

``An average annual economic growth rate of the region was 7. 5 percent, while that of Seoul remained a mere 2.8 percent per year,'' said the frontrunner.

Chung downgraded Sohn as a ``defector'' and promoted himself as the only candidate who can beat the GNP candidate. The former MBC anchorman criticized Lee Myung-bak's economic plan as anachronistic because he seeks to build such ``hardware'' as canals in a ``software'' age.
He claimed that more jobs would be created through the inter-Korean economic cooperation than through the construction of cross-country canals pushed by the former Seoul mayor. He boasted that it was he who has made the Gaesong Industrial Complex more vibrant during his tenure as unification minister.

Lee Hae-chan presented the three-point policy of job creation, building sustainable peace on the Korean peninsula and education as his flagship pledge. Chung and Lee Hae-chan worked as Cabinet members under the Roh Moo-hyun administration. But Chung has begun to distance himself from Roh while Lee Hae-chan is championing President Roh.

The nomination race will end in the middle of October. It is still unclear whether a UNDP nominee would wage a neck-and-neck race with Lee Myung-bak if the current opinion polls are any indication.

The latest survey showed his approval ratings are almost triple that of any of the three leading candidates of the liberal party.

The same poll also found Sohn came first among the nine UNDP candidates.

His rate stood at 40 percent, followed by Chung (16.8 percent) and Lee Hae-chan (5.7 percent).

All things considered, party insiders predicted either Sohn or Chung will take the first place in the first round of the primary scheduled to take place between Sept. 3-5.

They said the former Gyeonggi governor maintained the first place in public polls, while the former unification minister has the edge among party delegates and members as he previously served as chairman of the Uri Party. There is also the strong possibility that the eight other candidates will form a last minute alliance to beat Sohn.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr

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