10 opposition lawmakers lose ticket for April elections

The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea unveiled a list of lawmakers who will be excluded from the party nominations for the April 13 general election, Wednesday. They are, clockwise from top left, Reps. Baek Kun-ki, Hong Eui-rak, Kim Hyun, Lim Su-kyung, Moon Hee-sang, Shin Geh-ryoon, Noh Young-min, Yoo Ihn-tae, Jeon Jeong-hee and Song Ho-chang. / Yonhap

By Kim Hyo-jin

The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) said Wednesday it has excluded 10 incumbent lawmakers from its list of potential nominees to run in the April 13 general election.

The party’s nomination management committee announced the names of lawmakers who belong to the bottom 20 percent of its intra-party evaluation based on each lawmaker’s legislative activities and public opinion.

They include five-term lawmaker Moon Hee-sang, four-termer Shin Geh-ryoon, three-termers Noh Young-min and Yoo Ihn-tae, and first-termers Song Ho-chang, Jeon Jeong-hee.

The rest were those selected through the proportional representation system _ Reps. Lim Su-kyung, Kim Hyun, Hong Eui-rak, and Baek Kun-ki.

Their exclusion could influence the outlook of the parliamentary race, according to observers, as they are likely to run as independent candidates or join the minor opposition People’s Party, which is fighting with the MPK over voters in its home turf of Gwangju and the Jeolla provinces.

“Those excluded are from an original 25 of our 127 incumbent lawmakers,” said Hong Chang-seon, head of the nomination management committee, adding that they were the ones left after three incumbents had already announced they would not run in the election and 12 left the party.

Those who decided not to run _ former Chairman Moon Jae-in, four-term lawmaker Kim Sung-gon, and Rep. Choi Jae-sung, former party secretary general _ were irrelevant to the result of the evaluation, Hong added.

The move came after the party’s reform committee vowed to overhaul its nomination system as part of a grand reform plan. The committee set up by Moon after a crushing defeat in the April 29 by-elections, came up with the rules to screen incumbent lawmakers in November.

The committee assessed the members during December and January, based on a public survey, parliamentary activity and fulfillment of election pledges, and made the results public before the start of the party’s nomination process.

The lawmakers showed mixed responses to the announcement.

Rep. Yoo accepted the result, saying “I’m stepping down, hoping it contributes to the party.” Rep. Kim and Jeon were disgruntled with the news, saying they would raise a formal objection to the party. “The party needs to unveil the details of the assessment. Otherwise, it is unacceptable,” Jeon said.

The nomination committee is scheduled to disclose a second list of lawmakers who will be ruled out soon. Party officials said the committee will launch a thorough survey on the bottom 30 percent of two-term lawmakers and bottom 50 percent of lawmakers elected three times or more.

“Today was just the start of the shake-up. The rate of incumbent lawmakers who will be deprived of a ticket for the election could rise to 40 or 50 percent,” a party official said.