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| Park Kwang-on, right, and Geum Tae-sub, spokesmen of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) and Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo's camp, respectively, announce the method of forming a coalition party at the National Assembly, Friday. The merger will take place in the form of Ahn's aides and some DP members jointly creating a new party to absorb the remaining DP lawmakers. / Yonhap |
Two still differ on coalition party name
By Jun Ji-hye
The Democratic Party (DP) and Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo's camp agreed Friday on how to merge into a new coalition party by the end of the month.
Under the two-staged merger plan, Ahn's aides and some DP members will create the new party first and then the new entity will absorb the rest of the main opposition party.
DP Chairman Rep. Kim Han-gil and Ahn came up with the agreement at a one-on-one meeting, their spokesmen said at a press briefing.
The two leaders announced earlier this week that they had agreed on the formation of the coalition ahead of the June 4 local elections to compete against the ruling Saenuri Party, and to change the government in the next presidential poll in 2017.
"The two will co-chair a task force to draw up details for the formation of the new party," said Park Kwang-on and Geum Tae-sub, respective spokesmen of the DP and the Ahn camp, in a joint statement. "The team will turn into an official preparatory committee later, and the two will continue to work as co-chairmen of the committee."
The agreement came days after the two parties showed differences on the merger method following the leaders' announcement of the coalition.
Ahn's camp initially asked the opposition party to disband first, and for its lawmakers to separately join the coalition, claiming this method would be more appropriate to promote the coalition's main theme of new politics.
The DP claimed such method was unrealistic as dissolution would mean that it would have to give up government subsidies estimated at about 12.7 billion won ($11.8 million) as well as parliamentary seats allocated to 21 representatives through proportional representation.
Other agreements included establishing a "new politics vision committee," along with other branches that will be in charge of drawing up a party platform and policies, under the preparatory committee.
"The new politics committee and branches will be comprised of the same number of members from each side, with the two leaders supervising them," said the statement.
The new politics committee will work to create the coalition's measures to reform politics, and make them public from next week.
On Wednesday, their joint meeting decided to appoint Kim and Ahn as co-chairmen of the coalition.
However, the DP and Ahn camp, which have a vast difference in the number of legislators (126 to 2), still have differences over the name of the coalition.
Ahn's aides suggested "New Politics Future Coalition," while the DP is sticking to its stance that the word "Democratic" should be included.
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