Hong Joon-pyo elected new ruling party chief

Pro-Lee faction likely to lose control of party

By Lee Tae-hoon

Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, a sharp-tongued prosecutor-turned-politician, won the race to pick the new leader of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) Monday, heralding a major shift in the conservative party’s position.

The 57-year-old has been an outspoken critic of the government and some of the pro-business policies of his own party. He has maintained that the ruling party has been just an instrument of Cheong Wa Da.

“We should be reborn as a genuine conservative party,”the four-term lawmaker said in an acceptance speech.

“From now on, Hong Joon-pyo will bring about reform of the GNP.”

Hong is the first non-mainstreamer to take the helm of the ruling party, which has long been dominated by pro-President Lee Myung-bak figures.

In Monday’s GNP national convention, the former prosecutor garnered 41,166 votes, followed by Rep. Yoo Seung-min with 32,157, Rep. Na Kyung-won with 29,722, Rep. Won Hee-ryong with 29,086 and Rep. Nam Kyung-pil with 14,896.

Of the seven candidates who vied for the party’s chairmanship, these top five contenders will serve as members of the GNP’s decision-making Supreme Council.

The remaining two, Reps. Park Jin and Kwon Young-se, failed to get key posts with 8,969 and 6,906 votes, respectively.

The new GNP leadership was picked based on a 70-to-30 combination of votes from a 210,000-member electoral college and the outcome of a two-day telephone survey of 3,000 people held over the weekend.

All three contenders in their 40s made the top five list. All of the five lawmakers, except Rep. Yoo, have their constituencies in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.

Political watchers say lawmakers considered young and non-mainstream fared well in the intraparty race due largely to growing negative sentiment about the Lee administration’s pro-business policies.

They argued that the grim job market and growing income disparity are partly responsible for the embarrassing defeat of the pro-Lee lawmakers at the convention.

Of the seven candidates, only one pro-Lee lawmaker, Won, made the top five list, clearly showing the faction’s waning influence in the conservative party, in which more than two thirds of its lawmakers once openly claimed to be faithful to Lee.

Observers say the election outcome reflects a rise in power of the faction loyal to Park Geun-hye, former chairwoman of the GNP and a strong contender for the 2012 presidential election, in the aftermath of the party’s defeat in last year’s local elections and by-elections in April this year.

Polls show that support for Park, the eldest daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, is ahead of any ruling and opposition presidential hopefuls, including Sohn Hak-kyu, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, by double digits.

Hong and the four newly elected Supreme Council members will be automatically banned from running in the next presidential election in December 2012 as party regulations require all presidential hopefuls to resign from key party posts at least 18 months prior to the primary race.