By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
With about two weeks to go before scheduled by-elections, infighting is in full swing in the two major parties in their strongholds of Gyeongju and Jeonju.
Official campaigning starts Thursday and will continue until the eve of the April 29 by-elections to pick five lawmakers, one mayor and seven city council members.
In Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, stronghold of the governing Grand National Party (GNP), independent Jeong Su-seong, a retired four-star general, is challenging the GNP's Jung Jong-bok, a former lawmaker backed by President Lee Myung-bak's confidants.
Jeong served as a security advisor for Rep. Park Geun-hye, former GNP chairwoman, when she vied with incumbent President Lee in the GNP primary race to select its presidential candidate in 2007. Park lost the race by a razor-thin margin.
The independent alleged in a press conference late last month that President Lee's elder brother, Rep. Lee Sang-deuk, pressed him to drop out of the race to prevent a split in pro-GNP voters.
With Jeong's announcement, a factional feud erupted between Lee's aides and Park's followers.
Park called Rep. Lee's alleged demand ``a shame to politics,'' saying it shouldn't have happened.
President Lee's brother, meanwhile, denied the allegation, insisting he got phone calls from Jeong asking him to meet the candidate but he turned the request down.
A recent poll show GNP candidate Jung in pole position, with support of 35.9 percent, followed by Jeong with 25.8 percent.
Despite the double-digit gap, campaign watchers say it's too early to predict the GNP candidate's win in the race because voters there chose a pro-Park Geun-hye Coalition candidate in last year's National Assembly elections, indicating voters sympathize with the former GNP chairwoman.
The main opposition Democratic Party is also suffering from similar infighting in its stronghold of Jeonju, where former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young declared a bid to enter the race as an independent. He bolted from the party last Friday.
Chung will compete against the DP's Kim Keun-sik, a professor at Kyungnam University, in the race, featuring a competition between two North Korea experts.
DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun, who is said to be uncomfortable with the former unification minister, reportedly flexed his muscles in selecting Kim as its candidate.
Opinion polls show that the former Cabinet minister has a comfortable lead in the race, and political analysts say tears he shed during a presentation about his motivation for leaving the DP during a press conference ``moved'' his supporters.