By Kang Hyun-kyung, Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporters
Progressive parties have paid the price for their divisive ways. Two incumbent lawmakers ― Sim Sang-jeong and Roh Hoe-chan ― having run for the elections on the New Progressive Party (NPP) ticket lost.
With their defeat, the NPP failed to get even a single seat in the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, Reps. Kang Ki-kab and Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) succeeded in their bids for parliamentary seats.
Rep. Kang defeated President Lee Myung-bak's close aide Lee Bang-ho in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province. Lee serves as secretary general of the party.
But the DLP's five parliamentary seats along with seats it won under the proportional representation system as of 10 p.m. in the elections are much lower than those of the 2004 elections. The DLP had 10 lawmakers prior to the elections.
Election experts said the results showed the secretary general's role in the screening committee of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) backfired.
He received a barrage of criticism after the committee eliminated several close aides of Rep. Park Geun-hye. These lawmakers claimed they were not selected because they supported former party Chairwoman Park.
In February, the DLP was divided into two progressive camps ― the DLP led by Rep. Chun Young-se while the NPP was co-led by Reps. Sim and Roh ― after two factions failed to narrow a gap in the different views regarding the party's reform plan.
Campaign watchers said a split of progressive forces ahead of the elections and their failure in presenting strong visions to voters were the two leading causes for their poor election results.
The progressive DLP became the eye of the storm in the 2004 elections by winning 10 parliamentary seats. No DLP candidates had ever won the general elections before 2004.
Two DLP lawmakers including Rep. Kwon Young-ghil won their districts in the 2004 elections and the party garnered 13.1 percent of votes for political parties as well, which enabled eight candidates on the list of the proportional representation system to become lawmakers.
With 10 parliamentary seats, the DLP had become the third largest party in the Assembly.
The stories of the 386-generation and supporters of former President Roh Moo-hyun seemed to be same.
The 386-generation refers to those born in the 1960s, who went to universities in the 80s and were in their 30s when the word was first coined. Most of them were student leaders of the pro-democracy movement in the 1980s and key members and backers of the former administration, led by Roh.
However, only a handful of the 386 lawmakers who ran for reelection were successful. Rep. Song Young-gil, a former student president of Yonsei University, won reelection in Incheon, and Rep. Kang Gi-jung, a former student activist leader at Chonnam National University, won over former Democratic Party leader Hahn Hwa-kap in Gwangju.
The 386 generation former student activists, including Reps. Lee In-young, Oh Young-sik, Im Jong-seok, Woo Sang-ho, Jung Chung-rae, Lee Ki-woo, Kim Tae-nyeon and Choi Jae-sung, got around 10 seats in the National Assembly in the 2004 elections. This time, however, they were frustrated as the Grand National Party (GNP) swept votes in the metropolitan area.
Backers of former President Roh Moo-hyun also fell in the election. Former Cheong Wa Dae Spokesman Kim Man-soo and Yoon Hoo-duck, former presidential secretary for policy coordination, lost in the election.
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