By Na Jeong-ju
Staff reporter
Lee Hoi-chang, chairman of the minor opposition Liberty Forward Party (LFP), expressed his intention to resign, Monday, to take responsibility for the party’s defeat in the June 2 local elections.
“Lee told party lawmakers that he would resign,” LFP spokeswoman Park Sun-young said. “But they asked him to rethink and continue to lead the party until the by-elections slated for July 28.”
If Lee resigns, Byun Ung-jun, a three-term lawmaker and a member of the LFP’s decision-making Supreme Council, is expected to succeed him as chairman.
In the local elections, the party won the Daejeon mayoral race, but lost in other key battlegrounds in the Chungcheong provinces, where it had received overwhelming support.
The party has strongly protested the government’s plan to build a business complex on the site of Sejong City in South Chungcheong Province, which was initially planned as an administrative town.
A former aide to the late former President Roh Moo-hyun, Ahn Hee-jung was elected as governor of South Chungcheong, defeating candidates of the LFP.
Lee founded the LFP back in 2007, after he unsuccessfully ran in the presidential election.
It was his third time to run in the presidential election, following his consecutive defeats in the 1997 and 2002 races.