The nation’s political arena is being hit by a wave of controversy over the nomination of candidates for the National Assembly election due to be held in April. The screening committee of the main opposition United Democratic Party, which is being led by its chairman Park Jae-seung, is largely concerned with reforming itself and ensuring that its candidates have high ethical standards. The whirlwind created by the UDP is having a corresponding effect on the ruling Grand National Party, which has been wrestling with its own crisis over ethics, following a debate that nearly split the party earlier this year over whether candidates with past histories of corruption should be allowed to run in the parliamentary election.

After the UDP embarked on reforming its nomination process, it excluded 11 high-profile figures from the process based on the idea that it would eliminate politicians with histories of involvement in corrupt activities. Excluded from the candidate list are Kim Hong-up, the son of former President Kim Dae-jung; Park Jie-won, the former president’s former chief of staff; and Ahn Hee-jung, a close aide to former President Roh Moo-hyun.

Some observers say that approximately 50 percent of the people currently serving as lawmakers in the Honam area, the UDP stronghold, will be replaced. The party’s screening committee predicted the figure would be about 30 percent overall, and made it clear that there would be no exceptions, even for candidates running in metropolitan areas and those hoping to win seats assigned by proportional representation. Given this, it is expected that the UDP will largely be formed by people new to the party. If eliminate-the-corrupt canditate campaigns by civic groups in 2000 were of a symbolic nature, it is likely that people from outside the UDP will be directly responsible for selecting the party’s parliamentary candidates under similar criteria.

Though there is some looming discontent, positive responses still prevail. A senior UDP lawmaker with a constituency in Seoul said, “After all, people from the outside did things that we couldn’t, but wanted, to do. Therefore, we have benefited from the influx of people from outside (the party).” The UDP’s screening committee, which is headed by reform-minded people who have recently joined the party, has begun to untie the knots in the nomination process, entangled by factions, regionalism and the possibility of winning parliamentary seats in the April 9 election, the lawmaker said.

Some pointed out that the UDP must do better from now on, following the reforms in its nomination process. A UDP lawmaker with a constituency in the Seoul metro area said, “At first glance, I can say that the big picture has been well drawn. But the bigger task is deciding who will fill the vacancies.”

Lim Sang-ryeol, the director of the polling agency Research Plus, said, “It’s clear that the decision to exclude indicted hopefuls from the nominations is a meaningful signal. But, it’s too early to expect that this move will gain support from the general public.”

Meanwhile, the GNP has not found any sense of calm following the UDP’s reform of its nomination process. In particular, some GNP lawmakers with constituencies in the Seoul metropolitan area have expressed their worries, saying, “People can see that there seems to be nothing impressive about the GNP’s nomination process.”

A first-term GNP lawmaker with a constituency in Seoul said, “Public sentiment usually changes day and night. Pundits say this is ‘nomination reform,’ but we say it is ‘factional nomination’ or ‘migratory-bird nomination’.”

Another first-term GNP lawmaker with a constituency in Gyeonggi Province said he would call on party leaders to reject hopefuls with backgrounds of corruption as candidates for the April election. GNP hopefuls facing allegations of ethical lapses past and present have been in hot water as of late.

Analysts say the UDP’s reform of its nomination process is likely to force the GNP to follow suit. In order to win voters, the GNP should carry out a large scale of reshuffle of candidates for Seoul’s affluent Gangnam area and Gyeongsang Provinces, both of which are traditional GNP strongholds. That means the GNP should replace current lawmakers in those constituencies. However, the GNP’s dilemma is that such a move is likely to cause bitter turmoil within the party.

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