Park Geun-hye

By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

Rep.Park Geun-hye is losing her influence inside the governing Grand National Party (GNP) as her key confidants have lost nominations for the general elections in April.

The screening committee unveiled the nominations for 20 electoral districts but Park's confidant, Rep. Han Sun-gyo, failed to make the cut. Han served as spokesperson for Park during last year's GNP primaries.

Rep. Yun Kun-young, a confidant of President Lee Myung-bak elected to the National Assembly under the proportional representation system, took Han's electoral district in the nomination.

As for the nomination, the former party chairwoman said Han lost the nomination only because he had worked for her during the primaries. She vied for the GNP ticket with President Lee in the GNP primaries and became a runner-up with a razor-thin margin.

``The worst case scenario has become a reality,'' she lamented, shortly after the nominations were unveiled. ``Han has no problem at all when it comes to the criterion the screening panel members used for the selection,'' she continued.

She cancelled all her appointments for yesterday and today, an aide said.

The aide added Park would wait and see how it turns out in the nominations in South and North Gyeongsang provinces, strongholds of the GNP, and ``could make a grave decision'' if needed.

Stormy reactions are expected to come on Park's side again next week. Party screening committee head Ahn Kang-min made clear there is no change in his plan to replace any troubled incumbents with new faces.

The committee plans to make public the list of candidates for Gyeongsang electoral districts, where supporters of Park are the majority, early next week.

Park's supporters met to chart out their actions in case the worst possible scenario occurs.

They said in an interview that they are deeply concerned about the possible massive elimination of Park's confidants in the nominations.

Some of them said there is a possibility that 40 to 50 percent of incumbent party legislators could be replaced in the screening.

The task force committee chairman's determination to overhaul the nominations was made public after the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) sought a drive to bring transparency to the party's nominations by disqualifying candidates who have been sentenced to a jail term.

A latest JoongAng Ilbo newspaper poll found 49.4 percent of respondents predicted the UDP's nomination reform would have a positive effect on the April 9 parliamentary elections.

The same survey showed 34.5 percent said they had a better impression of the UDP after the ``reform'', or ``coup,'' in the political party's nomination of candidates.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr