DPK leader Lee denies allegations of unfair party nominations
Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, speaks to reporters at the party's headquarters in Seoul, Feb. 22. Yonhap
Main opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Thursday rejected accusations he is sidelining lawmakers not aligned with him from candidate nominations for April's general elections, and flatly rejected calls for his resignation.
The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has been engulfed in an internal rift over candidate nominations as a series of non-mainstream DPK lawmakers revealed that the party determined them as the lower 20 percent underperformers in terms of legislative activity.
The designation serves as demerit points when they compete with other contenders in party primaries and those included in the list have charged that it is part of an attempt to exclude those not loyal to DPK Chairman Lee from nominations.
On Thursday, Lee rejected all allegations, saying the nominations are being done in a fair manner.
"The Democratic Party of Korea is selecting competitive candidates according to a system based on reasonable criteria," Lee told reporters. "Complaints always arise in a competition, because how they assess themselves does not always correlate to how others evaluate them."
He also rejected calls for him to resign as party chairman.
"If the party's leader has to resign like this, we would end up replacing the leader all year round and 365 days," he said. (Yonhap)