Liberals to Launch New Party
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
More than 80 lawmakers from liberal groups launched a preparatory committee to organize a new party Tuesday, which will become the second largest negotiating group in the National Assembly.
The advent of the committee will likely expedite a coalition of liberal groups because it is trying to persuade lawmakers from the pro-government Uri Party and the Centrist United Democratic Party (CUDP) to join its move.
As a result, the pro-government Uri Party has 58 seats in the 299-member legislature, a sharp decrease from 152 seats it won in the 2004 National Assembly elections. The main opposition Grand National Party has 128 seats.
Participants in the establishment of the new party include pro-government presidential hopefuls _ former Gyeonggi Governor Sohn Hak-kyu; former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook; former Minister of Unification Chung Dong-young; former Minister of Justice Chun Jung-bae; and former Minister of Government Affairs and Home Affairs Kim Doo-kwan.
Once the new party is successfully created, they will hold an open primary race which allows non-party members to pick its presidential candidate by September to compete with the standard-bearer from the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP).
The preparatory committee vowed to help facilitate the coalition of liberal forces in a statement issued during its inaugural meeting at the Assembly in Seoul.
``Abandoning any vested right, we will be a melting pot which can produce energy for the grand coalition,'' said the statement signed by 2,991 people. ``We appeal to people, political forces and members of civic groups for joining the coalition.''
They also pledged to endeavor to ease economic polarization, revive the economy and succeed the engagement policy toward North Korea.
They plan to officially create a new party on Aug. 5, a spokesman of the committee said.
Fifteen Uri lawmakers including Rep. Chung Dong-chea and Kim Hyeong-joo and four from the CUDP including Rep. Kim Hyo-seuk announced defection Tuesday and jumped on the committee.
Co-Chairman Kim Han-gill of the CUDP and his 20 followers in the party also participated in the committee still keeping their party affiliation.
A group of 44 Uri deserters from the Uri Party have also joined the move.
Political watchers said lawmakers with liberal inclination showed visible results of the coalition by launching the committee but still have several hurdles.
The new party can be seen as another form of the Uri Party which is suffering rock-bottom popularity since Uri deserters are leading the group, they said.
Besides, they may not call their merger a ``coalition'' if they fail to win the CUDP which is widely supported by the Jeolla provinces over to their side, they added.
Co-Chairman Park Sang-cheon of the CUDP has refused to join hands with the Uri Party, insisting some of Uri lawmakers did poorly while serving as Cabinet ministers.