The ruling Saenuri Party on Tuesday failed to hold two key meetings due to a deepening factional dispute, thus missing out on its plan to initiate interim leadership to steer the straying party until official leadership is elected.
It was mostly those close to President Park Geun-hye who boycotted the incoming emergency panel and innovation committee, denouncing its composition as unilaterally excluding the pro-Park faction.
The party’s permanent national committee meeting and general national committee meeting were consecutively called off on Tuesday afternoon, due to the lack of required quorum.
The first meeting was to elect floor leader Chung Jin-suk as chief of the emergency panel and the second to bestow decision-making power upon the innovation committee, led by Rep. Kim Yong-tae.
Rep. Kim Yong-tae (Yonhap)
“I feel miserable beyond words that we should fail to even hold the meetings due to a lack of quorum,” said the party’s Secretary-General Hong Moon-pyo.
Those who did were present at the meetings publicly denounced the pro-Park faction for putting their interests over that of the party.
“This is not a party but a group of cliques,” said Rep. Chung Doo-un, a third-termer known to be a reformist, non-Park figure.
“This party is defined by its loyalty toward a specific person, not by its policy directions.”
Expressing disappointment and frustration over the procedural failure, Rep. Kim Yong-tae announced that he will resign from his job as innovation committee chief.
“The Saenuri Party has missed out on its final chance to ask for the people’s forgiveness,” he said in a press conference, apologizing to the people and resigning from his post.
Seeking to renew itself amid the results of the April 13 general election, the ruling party has been struggling to elect new leadership that may regain support from the apathetic public. The party secured 122 out of 300 seats in the April race, losing its former parliamentary majority and giving away several of its key constituencies in the metropolitan area.
As a restorative measure, newly elected floor leader Chung decided to constitute the incoming interim panel mostly with reformist non-Park members, much to the disapproval of the pro-Park group which formerly held leading power within the party.
By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)