By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff reporter
The governing Grand National Party (GNP)'s leadership contest has rekindled a long-standing rivalry between two prosecutors-turned-politicians, Reps. Hong Joon-pyo and Ahn Sang-soo.
The two leading candidates heading into the GNP national convention, slated for Wednesday, have a lot in common.
Both of the two four-term lawmakers started their prosecution career in 1985 and drew national attention for successfully handling some of the country's most prominent cases.
Hong, 55, spearheaded investigations into an influence peddling scandal involving a brother of former President Chun Doo-hwan in 1988, and organized gangs involved in the construction and gambling industries in the early 1990s.
In spite of mounting political pressure, Ahn, 64, also disclosed the truth behind the government's cover-up of the torture death of Park Jong-cheol, a 23-year-old student activist, in 1987.
The two former high-profile prosecutors entered politics in 1996 and have clinched victories in the National Assembly elections four times in a row, though Hong was temporarily stripped of his seat in 1999 after the Supreme Court slapped a fine of 5 million won ($4,150) on him for violating the Election Law.
Starting with Ahn, they served as floor leader of the GNP ― in turn ― between August 2007 and May 2010.
Hong held the party's No. 2 post for a year from May 2008 and handed it back to Ahn.
Though recent polls show that the two are neck and neck in the leadership race, observers say Ahn wields stronger influence within the party after he recently stepped down as floor leader, and is favored by President Lee Myung-bak.
However, he has been under heavy criticism for not serving mandatory military duty and blindly following the instructions of the presidential office, which many say resulted in the party's humiliating defeat in the June 2 local elections.
Ahn stepped down in May, about a month before his one-year term as floor leader ended, after being embroiled in a scandal involving a progressive monk.
Of the 12 candidates running in the GNP leadership race, Reps. Chung Doo-un and Nam Kyung-pil agreed to field a united candidate to increase the chance of a reform-minded nominee's victory in the election.
Five members of the decision-making Supreme Council will be picked at the national convention, in which the one who secures the most votes will be elected the new chairperson.
As party regulations stipulate that at least one of the five Supreme Council members must be a woman, if no female candidate places in the top five in the election, the one who garners the most votes automatically becomes a Supreme Council member.
Three female candidates, including Rep. Na Kyung-won, have declared their candidacy.