Council appoints 11 members who will select candidates for April elections


The ruling Grand National Party’s emergency leadership council organized on Tuesday its 11-member nomination committee for the upcoming April general elections.

The party allocated non-parliamentary experts from various social fields to key posts.

The committee chairmanship was taken by Chung Hong-won, former senior prosecutor and director of the Korea Legal Aid Corporation, and the vice chairman post by Chong Jong-sup, dean of Seoul National University Law School, officials said.

“Chairman Chung actively promoted legal aid services for the disadvantaged and introduced the manifesto system to the National Election Commission,” said Rep. Hwang Young-cheul, the council spokesperson.

“Based on his years-long experience in the prosecution and in the election watchdog, Chung is expected to deal with the nomination process in an impartial manner,” said Hwang.

Vice chairman Chong, one of the top authorities in constitutional law, is also known for his consistent calls for judicial reforms and unyielding academic beliefs, he added.

The selection of the two legal experts largely reflects the council leader Rep. Park Geun-hye’s determination to achieve judicial reforms and to shake off all irregularity scandals, observers noted.

The committee also included academic figures such as Sookmyung Women’s University president Han Young-sil and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology professor Park Seung-o.

As committee members are also entitled to make recommendations for proportional representative candidates, their extensive fields of expertise are expected to widen the party’s vision range in recruiting political rookies.

“The candidate nomination is a top priority task in order to achieve political reforms,” said council chairwoman Park.

“I believe that the selected committee members will make the right choices for the sake of the country and the people.”

Some, however, claimed that the panel composition is largely factional and thus to act in the favor of interim leader Park, especially as two among the three in-party members are key pro-Park figures.

The party’s secretary-general Rep. Kwon Young-se was previously seen as a neutral member but has recently risen as a core aide to the presidential hopeful Park.

Rep. Hyun Ki-hwan, too, is considered one of the leading figures of the pro-Park group.

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