In the ruling Grand National Party’s national convention on Monday, former Supreme Council member Rep. Hong Joon-pyo was elected as the new chairperson to lead the party up to next year’s general and presidential elections.

The fourth-term lawmaker was ranked atop not only in the delegate vote held in the Olympic Gymnastics Gymnasium on Monday, but also in the general vote held previously on Sunday and in the public polls as well.

Out of the total of 114,370 valid votes, Hong won 41,666 or 36.4 percent, beating second-ranked Yoo by almost 1,000 votes, according to party officials.

Reps. Yoo Seong-min, Na Kyung-won, Won Hee-ryong and Nam Kyung-pil followed and were thus named Supreme Council members.

The other two candidates, Reps. Park Jin and Kwon Young-se, failed to make it into the council.

“I take it that I was given this last chance so that I may lead the party into victory in next year’s general and presidential races,” said 57-year-old Hong.

“The GNP’s mission is to regain its identity as a true conservative party and for this, I shall start the necessary reformative measures.”

Rep. Hong also pledged to work in step with Rep. Park Geun-hye, former chairwoman and major frontrunner in next year’s presidential election.

“I am the only one who may protect Rep. Park from opposition attacks,” he said earlier.

Hong first won his public reputation while he took charge of major political cases during his prosecutor years and joined the political arena back in 1996 as member of the 15th National Assembly.

Despite his close ties with President Lee Myung-bak and his reputation as the party’s troubleshooter, however, Hong largely failed to join the mainstream until recently.

It was during his term as the party’s floor leader that he displayed his crisis management and communication skills, especially as he pulled through the sharp inter-party conflicts in cooperation with his opposition counterpart, Rep. Park Jie-won.

“Based on my motto ‘from the outskirts into the center,’ I shall now do my best as the party’s leader,” Hong said.

“I will not, however, forget where I came from and those who helped me.”

While Hong pledged to renew the party, attention was also drawn to Rep. Yoo, who was ranked next to Hong, performing above expectations.

Despite his relatively low public profile, Yoo, as a former key member of the Park Geun-hye camp, enjoyed the full support of the pro-Park group.

Also, the fact that the turnout rates on Sunday were high in the Gyeongsang provinces worked in the advantage of the Daegu-based lawmaker.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)