By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The Liberty Forward Party (LFP) led by Lee Hoi-chang merged with the minor opposition People First Party (PFP) Tuesday ahead of the National Assembly elections on April 9.
Through the merger, the conservative coalition became the fourth largest political party with eight Assembly seats.
The integrated party, under the name of the LFP, plans to create a committee on nominations for the elections.
``We will become the only alternative party to prevent the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) from sweeping the vote and stand as the largest opposition party to replace the incompetent United New Democratic Party (UNDP),'' said Lee who previously served as GNP chairman.
The new party picked PFP Chairman Sim Dae-pyeong as its head and aims to gain more than 50 of the 299 Assembly seats.
``The party will keep arrogance in check and suggest alternative new politics,'' Sim told reporters.
A total of eight lawmakers including former Democratic Party (DP) leader Chough Soon-hyung and former UNDP official Yoo Jay-kun joined the party.
The integrated party is considering mainly targeting the Chungcheong region, the stronghold of the PFP.
The GNP criticized the merger questioning whether they can become a reasonable conservative force.
GNP Vice Spokesman Park Tae-woo said, ``The people will see them as migratory bird-like politicians who easily defect from and join a political party. It is certain that the upcoming elections will be the worst-ever race for them.''
With about nine weeks to go before the Assembly elections, the UNDP announced Monday that it will merge with the liberal DP in a bid to prevent the GNP from sweeping the Assembly elections.
The mergers are aimed at winning more seats to prevent the possible dominance of the GNP which commands about 50 percent of popular support in opinion surveys.
Political experts speculate that the GNP will likely get up to two thirds of the Assembly seats based on the large popularity of President-elect Lee Myung-bak who won a landslide victory in December's election on the GNP ticket.
Currently, the UNDP has 135 seats, followed by the GNP with 130 seats and the progressive Democratic Labor Party with nine seats.
Once the UNDP and the DP officially merge, they will have a combined 141 seats.