Ruling party changes rules for former chairwoman to take charge


Rep. Park Geun-hye, the soon-to-be chief of the ruling Grand National Party, on Thursday vowed to change the embattled ruling party to the core, a day after she successfully patched up an internal feud over reform plans.

“We don’t have enough time. Our party’s fate depends on how we reach out to the public and make best efforts to address their problems during that time,” the politician said during a meeting of GNP lawmakers. She attended the lawmakers’ meeting for the first time in more than two years.

“Whatever form of reform we try, voters will take it as being meaningless and empty in substance, if we fail to show our sincerity to change,” she said. 

Thursday’s meeting celebrated the party’s unity around Park, after weeks of internal feuding, which led to the desertion of party membership by two lawmakers.

The GNP had been embroiled in an internal feud over how far it should push reform in order to win back the public’s confidence ahead of two crucial elections next year. Reformers demanded the party be dissolved and reborn as a completely new party, while those loyal to Park resist the idea of disbanding the party.

In a rare meeting Wednesday, Park met with some rebel members who had threatened to bolt out of the party if it refuses reform. Park and other participants of the meeting said they shared a view that the party should reform to a degree that goes “beyond recreation.”

Park, the party’s strongest presidential contender, is poised to return to the helm of the GNP next week. She, although leading a large faction, had stayed away from leadership positions for the past five years, after she lost to incumbent President Lee Myung-bak in the 2007 presidential nomination race.

The GNP, in a meeting of party representatives later Thursday, cleared legal hurdles for her comeback to the party’s front line while perusing the presidency.

“Participants of the meeting agreed to enact new rules regarding the emergency leadership council and recommend Rep. Park as its chief,” said Rep. Lee Doo-ah, the party’s spokesperson.

Under the new rules, Park is given an exemption to the party charter that forces presidential hopefuls to give up party leadership posts one and a half years prior to the election.

Her appointment as head of the emergency leadership council is to be confirmed at the party’s national committee meeting next week.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)