By Kim Jung-yoon
The ruling Saenuri party elected Lee Jung-hyun, a key aide to presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye from the traditional left-wing stronghold, and Kim Jin-sun, former Governor of Ganwgwon Province to be supreme council members Sunday.
Lee, widely known as a longtime right-hand man of Park, has served as a party leader, despite his home turf in Honam, or Jeolla Province, stronghold for the main opposition Democratic United Party and a rival region of Youngnam, or Gyeongsang Province, a traditional support base for Saenuri.
Over the past four years as a proportional representative of Saenuri, Lee has given his utmost efforts to expand the budgets for Honam in the conservative party, referred to as the“Honam guardian.”
His efforts as a member of the Saenuri Party have proved to reduce the regional divide in the city of Gwangju, by garnering over 40 percent of votes in the April 11 general elections on the conservative Saenuri Party ticket for the city’s Seo-B constituency against Oh Byung-yoon of the leftist Unified Progressive Party (UPP). The surprising figure is unprecedented, compared to 1 percent and 7 percent Saenuri candidate received in the region during the 17th and 18th National Assembly elections, respectively.
Saenuri’s appointment of Lee as the supreme council member came as his loyalty toward the conservative presidential hopeful and the high popularity in Jeolla provinces proved to be helpful in the upcoming presidential election for Park.
Lee’s active role in Saenuri is likely to win support from the Jeolla Provinces, where its rival camp usually dominated in the elections as the sole player.
Along with Lee, the former Governor of Gangwon and the Chairman of Pyongchang Olympics Organizing Committee was also appointed as the supreme council member.
The nomination of Kim comes as the electorates of Gangwon Province have cast their votes for Saenuri in the April parliamentary elections, providing all their designated nine seats to the party.