DP to Choose Its Own Presidential Candidate
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The minority Democratic Party (DP) announced Monday that it will hold a primary race to pick a presidential candidate on its own, saying that it will not join forces with any other pro-government parties.
The DP had considered merging with liberal groups, which now mostly belong to the United New Democratic Party (UNDP) but has now changed its mind.
``The party will soon have an internal race after organizing a preparatory group for the primary,'' party's Chairman Park Sang-cheon said.
The preparatory group will help work out campaign strategies, the timeline and rules of the primary race and support presidential hopefuls in the party, DP spokesman Yoo Jong-pil said.
Shin Nak-kyun, a member of the DP's Supreme Council, will lead the group and seven lawmakers including Reps. Sohn Bong-scuk and Choi In-kee will serve as advisers, he added.
From Friday, the party will help presidential aspirants with their campaigns and plans to select a presidential candidate by early October, he said.
So far, Reps. Chough Soon-hyun, Shin Kook-hwan, and Rhee In-je have indicated their presidential bid to win the party's ticket. Choo Mi-ae is likely to join them.
The party returned to its original name less than two months after it had adopted the name Centrist United Democratic Party with deserters from the pro-government Uri Party.
Political watchers said that the DP's decision on the sole primary race is mainly attributable to the recent announcement about the merger of the Uri Party and the UNDP.
As the DP cannot join the pro-government camp, it is seemingly trying to survive by holding its own primary race, they added.
The embattled Uri Party is scheduled to merge its faction with the UNDP next Monday after suffering rock-bottom popularity.
The DP was considering holding hands with the UNDP, the second largest negotiating group so far, to win the Dec. 19 presidential election but has insisted on the exclusion of the Uri Party.
Even now, the DP has refused to get involved with the Uri Party criticizing its poor performance.
``The UNDP is just another form of the Uri Party. To be more precise, it is the Uri Party with more loyalists to President Roh Moo-hyun,'' Park said. ``The interim party will spoil the development of politics in Korea.''
Park has insisted that some Uri lawmakers who served as Cabinet ministers under the incumbent government will drive away supporters if they join the DP, because they have disappointed the people with their poor performance.
The UNDP is expected to stand as the largest party with 143 seats among the 299-member unicameral legislature after merging with the Uri Party on Aug. 20.
The DP has only nine seats.