Park Hee-tae Elected Ruling Party Chairman
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Former Vice National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae, 70, was elected chairman of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) at the party's national convention in Seoul, Thursday. He won 6,129 votes, followed by Rep. Chung Mong-joon with 5,287 votes.
Park replaces Kang Jae-sup and will lead the party, which has 153 seats in the 299-member Assembly, for the next two years, along with the GNP's four-member Supreme Council. The four are Reps. Chung, Huh Tae-yeol, Gong Sung-jin and Park Soon-ja.
In his acceptance speech, the new GNP chairman pledged to work hard with party members to regain the confidence of the people.
``A lack of trust in the ruling party is the major source of confusion facing us now. I will approach the people in despair with a humble attitude to understand their needs,'' Park said ``I will strive to find ways of getting the troubled economy back on the right track.''
Park Soon-ja, the only female candidate, became a member of the council automatically as the GNP national convention rules requires at least one slot on the Supreme Council to be allocated to a woman.
Political analysts said Park had wide support from followers of President Lee Myung-bak and is a close friend of Lee's brother Rep. Lee Sang-deuk, saying this probably helped his successful bid.
Park was portrayed as a unifier and leader having strong management skills, while his rival Chung pitched himself as a leader who believes in change.
During the campaign, Park pledged to promote the ruling party's relationship with Cheong Wa Dae.
He also called for appointing more politicians including incumbent and former lawmakers as Cabinet ministers as well as to other key government posts, claiming doing so would help facilitate communication between the administrative and legislative bodies.
Park said a poor understanding of political affairs by presidential secretaries was behind the failure to deal with rising protests against American beef imports.
He advocated placing veteran politicians who have an understanding of how politics work into posts handling the political affairs of the government.
Park's close ties with the President's brother came at a cost. In March, Park, then a five-term lawmaker, was eliminated in the selection of GNP candidates to run in the April 9 elections, which party insiders said was dominated by close aides of President Lee, because of his strong bond with the elder Lee.
Two different groups ― young radicals represented by Rep. Chung Doo-un and senior politicians such as President Lee's elder brother ― have been in tense relationship, which later exploded into power struggle.
Party insiders called Park a victim of the power struggle when he failed to make the cut last March.