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| Former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn celebrates after being announced the winner of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party's leadership election at the KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By Park Ji-won
Former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn was elected as the new leader of the largest opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), Wednesday, pledging to unify conservatives and stand against the Moon Jae-in administration.
"From the moment I step down from this podium, I will start to fight against the tyranny of the Moon Jae-in administration to protect the country and its people. I will start a journey to win a landslide victory in the 2020 general elections and seize the power in 2022," Hwang said in his acceptance speech.
"I will also seek the unification of liberal conservatives."
Hwang won 50 percent of votes, or 68,713, in the election beating out his two rivals ― former Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon who came in second with 42,653 votes and far-right lawmaker Kim Jin-tae with 25,924 votes ― at the party's national convention. Originally, eight contenders announced their bids but only three ended up running in the race. Hwang replaces interim leader Kim Byong-joon and will serve as the party's leader for two years.
Meanwhile, Reps. Kim Soon-rye, Kim Gwang-lim, Cho Kyoung-tae, Shin Bo-ra and Chung Mi-kyung were elected as members of the Supreme Council. The nationwide voter turnout for the election was 25.4 percent.
In a last-minute speech before the election, Hwang criticized the Moon administration for imposing "left-leaning policies" that risked the nation's economy, and giving North Korea a lot of benefits. He also pledged to improve ties with the U.S.
Hwang was prime minister between 2015 and 2017 under the Park Geun-hye administration and served as acting president when Park was suspended from her job in late 2016 when she was impeached over corruption and power abuse charges.
Hwang now faces the task of shifting the LKP away from the criticism that it has returned to being "the old Park Geun-hye party" without taking responsibility for the former president's corruption.
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