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| Suh Chung-won, right, a six-term lawmaker who is loyal to President Park Geun-hye, speaks about changing election nomination rules as ruling Saenuri Party Kim Moo-sung listens during a party meeting at the National Assembly, Monday. / Yonhap |
By Do Je-hae
Ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung clashed with Rep. Suh Chung-won, a loyalist to President Park Geun-hye, Monday, over how to change the selection system for candidates in next year's general election.
The party initially planned to launch a special panel tasked with reviewing nomination rules, but delayed this due to feuding between rival factions.
The collision signals a deepening rift between pro-Park lawmakers and other Saenuri Party members led by Kim.
Suh traded barbs with him during a Supreme Council meeting. The seven-term lawmaker slammed Kim for unilaterally pursuing changes to nomination rules without the party's prior consent, referring to a tentative agreement Kim recently reached with his main opposition counterpart Rep. Moon Jae-in to introduce an open primary system to select candidates.
"The telephone polling system with security numbers was not reported to the Supreme Council," Suh said.
He criticized Kim for going his own way on the election rules while undermining party regulations and a consensus. His criticism climaxed when he said, "I will speak of a party where an individual [referring to Kim] does whatever he wants. I will no longer forgive such behavior."
Looking visibly upset, Kim told Suh to refrain from further verbal attacks.
Suh, known to be one of President Park's confidants, was seen as speaking on behalf of her against Kim's pursuit of new nomination rules, the backbone of which is a variant of a U.S.-style open primary system. Kim reached a tentative deal with New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) Chairman Moon on such modifications while Park was out of the country, which some viewed as Kim challenging her influence on the selection process. So far, The President has remained silent on Kim's proposals for rule changes, a departure from when she openly called former Saenuri party floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min a "traitor" for not fully supporting her administration.
During the Supreme Council meeting, the pro-Park and other factions wrangled over who to include in the special panel, particularly over the nomination of the committee chief.
Kim tapped Rep. Hwang Jin-ha, who has been leading a task force on the open primary system, to lead the panel. But the pro-Park faction wants someone other than Hwang from the Supreme Council, such as Rep. Rhee In-je or Rep. Kim Tae-ho to give the panel a fresh start.
The pro-Park faction also took issue with the polling percentages for candidate selection. Kim has said that these should be determined based on the results of a public survey alone, but some opponents say that party members should also be polled.
"According to party regulations, the public survey should account for 50 percent and a survey of party members should take another 50 percent," Suh told reporters Monday.
Meanwhile, the question of redrawing the electoral map ahead of the general election is also undergoing difficulties.
The floor leaders of the Saenuri Party and the NPAD failed to narrow their differences on the number of electoral districts for the general election in April 2016.
A morning meeting, Monday, ended without any headway between Saenuri Party floor leader Won Yoo-chul and his NPAD counterpart Lee Jong-kul. They met for a second time later in the afternoon to continue their discussions about redrawing the electoral map, while keeping the number of Assembly seats at 300.
The discussions are facing a bumpy road ahead, as the rival parties have been clashing on how to readjust constituencies after a Constitutional Court ruling last October that the current electoral map resulted in unequal representation due to population changes.
The talks between the parties have been deadlocked on the issue as the Saenuri Party wants to reduce the number of seats selected through proportional representation to minimize the number of rural constituencies that are expected to be integrated. However, the NPAD is against eliminating proportional representation, claiming the move goes against political reform.
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