Current Administration Loses Its Trust

Park Geun-hye has been elected a new supreme representative of Grand National Party for a term of two years.

On the 7th regular party convention held in Jamsil Student Stadium this afternoon, Park received 8,433 votes (42.1 percent) out of 20,020 valid ballots.

Candidates in their 40s caused a sensation, with Won Hee-ryong coming in 2nd by receiving 2,610 votes (13 percent), and Kim Young-sun coming in 3rd with 2,249 votes (11.2 percent). Lee Gang-doo and Lee Gyu-taek were 4th, and 5th by a slight margin.

The supreme representative was elected by actual votes of 5,000 representative chambers (50 percent), a prior public-opinion poll (30 percent), and Internet votes (20%) put together. The candidates who came in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th became members of the supreme council.

It is reported that Park will be making reformatory personnel shifts during this week, and will be reforming the party with a three-year reformation plan.

In her speech after the election, she criticized the current government by saying, “Our country is facing 3 serious crises: the ‘national identity crisis,’ the ‘national vision crisis,’ and the ‘national unification crisis.’ President Roh stands in the middle of these crises, and the current administration has lost trust and persuasion from the people.”

She added, “I’m confronting offensive propagandas, and the debasement of my personality with the belief that true unification and reconciliation starts from the politics that both live. I’m asking President Roh and the Uri Party not to intrude onto the path of the Grand National Party or I who are both trying to walk in the paths of unification and reconciliation. ”

She continued by saying, “The Grand National Party will be protecting the democracy and the market economy which are the national identities of Korea, and the party will be opening a new era of unification and reconciliation through development.”

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com