Former Saenuri Party leader Park Geun-hye was elected the ruling party's presidential candidate after garnering a landslide victory in its national convention near Seoul on Monday.
The victory of Park, the eldest daughter of former president Park Chung-hee, marks the first time a major political party in South Korea has picked a woman to run for president. She also became the first offspring of a former president to become a presidential candidate.
In the election that combines votes by party members and citizens and opinion polls, the 60-year-old Park secured 84.0 percent of votes, trailed by Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo with 8.7 percent; former South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Tae-ho with 3.2 percent; Yim Tae-hee, the former chief of staff to President Lee Myung-bak, with 2.6 percent; and former Incheon Mayor Ahn Sang-soo with 1.6 percent.
The contest has never been close, and few had doubted Park would emerge victorious, as she enjoys broad support from across the party and consolidated her standing after rebuilding the once-beleaguered party and leading it to a widely unexpected victory in April's parliamentary elections.
Park set the ruling party's record in voting rate, as her margin of victory exceeded the 68 percent of all votes won by former prime minister Lee Hoi-chang, who secured the Grand National Party's (GNP) presidential ticket in the 2002 primary. The GNP formed in 1997 is the predecessor party to Saenuri that was re-formed early this year.
In her acceptance speech, Park stressed the need for unity that transcends the country's social divides.
"I plan to herald in a new era of unity of all people," Park said. The nominee said she will overcome regional, ideological and generational gaps and strive to open a new chapter that encompasses those who played a role in the industrialization of the country and contributed to its democratic development.
She also said that every effort will be made to deal with political corruption, do more to create new jobs and push forward economic democratization that is vital for balanced growth.
Related to the victory, President Lee Myung-bak said in an address read by Kim Hak-song, the head of the party's primary election organizing committee, that Saenuri should unite under the new presidential candidate with those who failed to win the party primary accepting defeat.
"The party must protect the country's free democratic values and must do more to uphold underprivileged people and the middle class," the president said.
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae also issued a brief congratulatory statement by its spokesman, which said in part, "We hope she will lead the election (campaign) with vision and policy so as to give hope to the people."
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), meanwhile, has yet to pick its candidate for December's presidential election. Major candidates include Moon Jae-in, a former chief of staff to late President Roh Moo-hyun; Sohn Hak-kyu, a special advisor for the party; and former South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Doo-gwan.
With the launch of the DUP's presidential primary just six days away, Moon is leading other candidates in various opinion polls by showing an approval rating of around 30 percent, compared with the 10 percent range for the other candidates.
Also considered a potential opposition candidate for the December poll is Ahn Cheol-soo, a software entrepreneur-turned-professor, who is widely popular, especially among young Koreans, due largely to his clean and upright image. (Yonhap)
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