By Lee Tae-hoon
Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, chairman of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), resigned Friday, a day after he announced a package of restructuring measures for the ruling party.
He was elected to head the GNP at the party’s annual convention on July 4 this year. “I apologize for failing to fulfill the expectations of party members,” Hong said in a press conference.
He admitted that he could not cope properly with the negative fallout of the Seoul mayoral by-election defeat and a recent cyber attack scandal involving an aide to a senior lawmaker.
“I deserve to be blamed for all of this,” Hong said.
The outspoken lawmaker, however, expressed deep regret over his fellow legislators’ resistance to provide support for his push to renew the GNP.
“I realized that it is meaningless to keep this position after watching people condemn my plan to resign after overhauling the party to avoid a leadership vacuum, as a move to protect their vested interests,” he said.
“There must be no more factional in-fighting.”
Hong had unveiled a plan to overhaul the election nomination process and disband the current party to create a new one with a different name and platform.
However, this did not alleviate growing discontent with him. Earlier in the day, he had sought to discuss ways to rebuild the GNP at a Supreme Council meeting, but this was called off because only two of the nine council members were willing to attend.
With the resignation of Hong, all eyes are now on whether Rep. Park Geun-hye, a former chairwoman and leading presidential contender, will take over the conservative party’s No. 1 post.
Close aides to Park said the daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee appears to be mulling assuming leadership of the troubled party, which is plunging deeper into turmoil.
They said Park, who has stayed away from party affairs for years, has expressed a willingness to roll up her sleeves to help salvage the troubled party.
Park instructed her aides not to plan any official schedule for the time being, triggering speculation that she was thinking of taking the post.
Reform-minded lawmakers have called on her to lead the GNP ahead of crucial parliamentary elections in April, despite Hong’s pledge to press for overall reform.
Some, however, say that she may decline to take over party’s top post as its charter bans presidential hopefuls from serving in an elective party post for one and a half years before the election.
Park introduced the rule in 2005 while serving as GNP chairwoman in an effort to guarantee fair competition among presidential contenders.
Many GNP members, including Hong, want to revise the current rules to allow Park or other political heavyweights, who would otherwise avoid assuming the party’s top post, to lead their party ahead of major elections.
Meanwhile, Rep. Kim Jin-pyo, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), sought a confidence vote in him amid growing criticism for agreeing with his GNP counterpart Hwang Yoo-yeo to open an ad-hoc parliamentary session.
The DP is expected to hold a close-door session to vote on whether he should continue in the party’s No. 2 post.