The ruling Grand National Party said it will introduce an “open primary” system that allows the general public to participate in the process of nominating its candidates for next April’s parliamentary elections.

A GNP spokesperson said the party’s emergency leadership council decided in its meeting Monday to pick 80 percent of the candidates through an open primary and the rest through an intraparty race.

As there are 245 total districts, this means the GNP wants to select candidates for 196 districts through an open primary and the remaining 49 through an internal race.

An open primary allows all voters to cast their votes for a candidate for an election.

The GNP had proposed a bill last year seeking to introduce an 80-percent open primary and a 20-percent party race nomination system.

To implement the system smoothly, both the ruling and opposition parties should come to an agreement to revise the election law, the GNP said.

An open primary invites citizens to participate in the nomination process, regardless of their support for any party.

The intraparty races are likely to be held in GNP strongholds, including the affluent Gangnam districts in southern Seoul and the southeastern Gyeongsang region.

The GNP bill also seeks the state funding of party race costs while the National Election Commission oversees a party convention.

To prevent a citizen in support of a party from participating in its rival party’s primary and voting for a weak candidate to boost the prospect for his or her party, the bill calls for each party’s convention date to fall on the same date.

The GNP also decided that they will not field a current GNP member to the party’s strongholds, if he or she had been elected by the proportional representation system.

If a popular lawmaker holding a proportional representation seat wants to run for the April elections, the GNP will encourage him or her to run in GNP’s “inferior” regions, the party’s interim council said.

In a party race, the GNP will offer 20 percent extra points to a woman politician to encourage females to join the political circles.

As for a mobile voting which was reviewed at the council’s meeting, the GNP has decided not to adopt it, due to a possible breach of the direct election principle.


By Kim Yoon-mi
(yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)