Lee Hye-hoon elected as Bareun Party leader

By Kim Hyo-jin

Rep. Lee Hye-hoon waves hands at party members after being elected as the new leader of the Bareun Party at a national convention at the National Assembly, Monday. / Yonhap

Lee Hye-hoon, a three-term female lawmaker, was elected as new leader of the minor opposition Bareun Party, Monday.

Lee won 36.9 percent of the votes in the final poll during the national convention, defeating Reps. Ha Tae-keung, Jeong Woon-chun, and Kim Young-woo who garnered 33.1 percent, 17.6 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively.

Ha, Jeong and Kim became members of the party’s decision-making Supreme Council.

Only four candidates ran in the two week-long leadership race to elect the leader and three Supreme Council members, who have two-year terms.

Lee reportedly has a close relationship with the party’s ex-presidential candidate Yoo Seong-min. Yoo refused to support anyone officially during the race.

She is expected to strengthen the party’s reformative, independent stance without seeking collaboration with the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP). She has strongly been opposed to the idea of forming an alliance with the LKP for local elections next year.

“I will work to make the party the leader of the conservative bloc,” she said during her acceptance speech.

The Bareun Party, which broke away from the LKP’s predecessor the Saenuri Party, has suffered from low popularity in the conservative stronghold of the Gyeongsang provinces.

Lee vowed to shape the party into a new perception of the conservative movement, saying, “I will completely differentiate the party from the old conservative movement and seek productive politics. We will stop being the opposition just for the sake of being so, but will present alternatives when we do so.”

Her leadership is expected to be a fresh start for the party. She earlier vowed to have more female members take on key roles in the party and recruit more women to run in local elections.

Lee’s victory means three political parties out of five have female leaders. Reps. Choo Mi-ae and Sim Sang-jung now lead the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and the minor opposition Justice Party, respectively.

Born in Busan, Lee majored in economics at Seoul National University and earned a PhD at UCLA. She later worked as a researcher at the Korea Development Institute and taught economics at the University of Leicester.

The economic expert got into politics in 2004 and won a parliamentary seat three times in Seocho, a wealthy district in southern Seoul.