By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
A factional feud over the selection of candidates for April's National Assembly elections has shown no sign of subsiding.
Rep. Park Geun-hye of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) reiterated Friday her position that the candidate nomination should take place as early as possible in a fair and transparent manner.
Park, who was on a trip to China as President-elect Lee Myung-bak's special envoy, expressed her strong discontent over remarks by Rep. Lee Jae-oh, a key aide for President-elect Lee Myung-bak, that Park's supporters have only been indulging in an in-house power struggle and damaging the party's unity.
``I have said that the nomination process should take place in a transparent, fair and democratic way on the basis of principles,'' Park told reporters in Beijing. ``It's wrong that some party members are trying to distort my intention by accusing me of taking more share in the party.''
In a radio program Thursday, Lee Jae-oh said Park turned down the President-elect's proposal to become prime minister.
Park, a former GNP chairwoman, denied it. She made it clear, however, that she would not accept Lee's proposal to take over the prime minister's job even should the President-elect offer it.
Park has been referred to as the most viable candidate to become the first premier under the Lee government. But some of Park's supporters have opposed the idea, worrying their influence within the GNP could be weakened without Park.
Lee Myung-bak's supporters have called for a massive change in the GNP's parliamentary makeup in the April elections.
Earlier this month, GNP Secretary-General Lee Bang-ho said the party will change 40 percent of its candidates in Gyeongsang Province, the conservative party's stronghold and considered Park's home turf.
Lawmakers supporting Park denounced the remarks as a maneuver to disadvantage them.
Park's aides also call for carrying out the nomination at an early date, while Lee's supporters argue an early candidate selection would hamper parliamentary business even before the inauguration of the new government.
Park's supporters have accused party leaders of delaying the nomination timing in a bid to eliminate lawmakers loyal to Park by not giving them time to put up resistance.