Park Geun-hye, the leading presidential contender for the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), said Thursday that her party should select competitive candidates for next year's parliamentary elections through a fair and transparent nomination system.

   "I basically think a couple of powerful figures should not pick candidates for the general elections," Park said during an interview with news Y, the all-news cable TV channel run by the Yonhap News Agency. "(The GNP) should make a nomination standard that is plausible to people and explain it to people. We have to make a transparent, open system according to that rule."

  

   Park was visiting news Y on the first day of the channel's broadcast.

   Her remarks came after calls have mounted for Park to lead the push to move away from the party's image of being for the rich and privileged and for GNP to field competitive candidates who can woo voters ahead of the general elections, slated for April next year.

   In South Korea, most party nominations are closed-door affairs led by a few heavyweights in the party's leadership, with little debate over policy issues. The opaque process, often riddled with bribery and nepotism, has been criticized as one of the sources of corruption and the reason for a general distrust of major political parties.

   Park, who aspires to be South Korea's first female president, has stayed away from party affairs for years because of soured relations with President Lee Myung-bak, after she lost to Lee in the party's 2007 primary to select a presidential candidate.

   With about a year left before the presidential race in December, she has recently stepped up her public activities through lectures and meeting with residents at local events, seen as preliminary campaign activities to gear up for a second bid at the party nomination.

   "Right now, the party is going through difficulties and people are suffering as well. Under the circumstances, I have no option but to actively take action," Park, the daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee, said, hinting at what she sees as her role in the next election.

   The former chairwoman has not yet officially announced a bid, but has been almost unchallenged in the ruling camp for years. In the past months, however, Park has faced fresh challenges as a star computer software entrepreneur, Ahn Cheol-soo, has jolted political circles with overwhelming support from young and independent voters for his clean and upright image.

   Ahn, the founder of the nation's largest anti-virus software firm Ahnlab Inc., caused a political whirlwind in early September as he stood against the ruling party ahead of the October by-election for Seoul mayor.

   His support for the opposition-backed political novice, Park Won-soon, was considered a critical factor that led the lawyer-turned-activist to win rather than his high-profile ruling party rival. Since announcing his plan to donate his massive personal assets last month, the latest polls showed that more people favored Ahn as the next president over Park. Ahn has yet to announce that he will run.

   When asked to comment on her potential rival Ahn, Park said massive public support for the political novice shows people's disenchantment with the major political parties, which are often plagued with political disputes and mudslinging.

   "(Ahn's popularity) is a warning from people as the traditional political parties failed to meet their expectations," she said.

(Yonhap News)