Leading parties are to add momentum to their preparations for the upcoming general elections by kicking off a candidate nomination committee as early as this week.
They are also expected to carry out a major nominee reshuffle, in response to ongoing calls for reforms.
The ruling Grand National Party’s emergency leadership council is to line up a nomination screening committee this week and to confirm its members as early as Wednesday, according to officials on Tuesday.
The panel, in an attempt to foster fairness and party renewal, will mostly consist of prestigious non-party members of the right-wing, officials said.
The list of potential chairperson candidates included former Environment Minister Yoon Yeo-joon and pastor In Myung-jin, who chaired the party’s ethics committee in the past.
The party is also to run a separate panel to screen its proportional representative candidates, officials said.
The main opposition Democratic United Party, too, is operating its electoral task force under the newly-elected chairperson Han Myeong-sook.
The DUP is to establish its candidate screening panel by next week and finalize the detailed standards for nomination.
The candidate selection is expected to be more heated than ever as both parties have been pressed to bring in fresh nominees and achieve reforms to win back public support.
Under the circumstances, the GNP decided earlier to rule out the least popular 25 percent of its current lawmakers from nominations.
Based on these standards, a minimum of 34 GNP lawmakers will be dropped from the list, and more may drop out of race, giving way to new faces.
Though the measure resulted in blacklash especially from Seoul-based lawmakers, the party leadership remained determined to reorganize the in-party structure.
The rival DUP also pledged to break away from the conventional nomination system based on regionalism.
Already, several of its influential figures have set to give up their favorable constituencies and to enter the race in strategically important districts for the party.
Supreme councilor Rep. Kim Boo-kyum is to challenge his next parliamentary seat in Daegu, a leading GNP stronghold and hometown to its chairwoman Rep. Park Geun-hye.
“I shall give up all my vested rights to break down regionalism and to pioneer a new constituency for our party,” Kim said in his candidate speech prior to the leadership election.
Senior advisor Moon Jae-in, former party leaders Reps. Chung Sye-kyun and Chung Dong-young followed suit and decided to run the race in Busan, Jongno and Gangnam respectively.
By Bae Hyun-jung (
tellme@heraldcorp.com)
