Korean political parties usually recruit “new faces” ahead of major elections to improve their public image and broaden their support base.

This recruiting campaign is getting fiercer as the parties brace for the April general election amid the virtual split of the main opposition party and the public’s disenchantment with the current 19th National Assembly. 

But all the major scouts -- the Mijoo Party of Korea, Ahn Cheol-soo’s People’s Party and the ruling Saenuri Party -- seem to be failing in their mission, with many of their recruits turning out to be wrong choices.

Moon Jae-in, leader of the Minjoo Party, kicked off the battle to enlist fresh figures, as his party was slipping into deeper crisis in the wake of the desertion of Ahn and his followers.

But some of Moon’s efforts to bring in outside figures to counter the damage inflicted by the breakaway of Ahn’s group and other estranged members are backfiring. For instance, one of his first choices was an art therapy professor, but no sooner had her name been made public than was a barrage of allegations made against her.

In the end, the allegations about plagiarism and copyright infringement forced her to give up her party membership. 

Ahn, who broke away from Moon’s party last month and plans to launch his own party next month, is also striving to recruit people befitting his call for “new politics” and “politics for the people.”

What distinguishes Ahn from Moon is that he is reaching out to centrists and center-rightists, portraying his strategy as a pursuit of a “rational reform” and rejection of both “outdated liberalism and ultraconservatism.” It is out of this political calculation that he paid respects to the late presidents Park Chung-hee and Syngman Rhee as well as Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung during his visit to National Cemetery on Monday.

This is in contrast to other opposition leaders -- like Moon -- who used to shun Park and Rhee, whom liberal groups still dismiss as dictators, when they visit the cemetery.

But as things stand, people who join Ahn’s People’s Party are mostly former members of the Minjoo Party. Moreover, Ahn and his party are encountering the same problem of the Minjoo Party -- enlisting the wrong people.

Earlier this week, Ahn announced that five people, including two former Cabinet ministers and a lawyer, had decided to join his party.

But the party revoked the decision in just three hours as all the three had been implicated in cases of corruption or misconduct. Ahn had to publicly apologize for the party’s faulty vetting process.

Indeed, the party’s screening system became a laughing stock since one needs only a few clicks on the Internet to ascertain what three men had done wrong.

The ruling Saenuri Party cannot avoid criticism either when it comes to the silly process of recruiting outside figures. Saenuri leader Kim Moo-sung held a news conference this week to introduce the party’s six new recruits, who he confidently said would greatly help the party in the April election. Alas, Kim did not know that two of them had already been party members for some time.

As a matter of fact, one of them ran for a parliamentary seat twice and the other once served as assistant to South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Hong Jun-pyo when he was a National Assembly member. These people are far from new figures whose expertise and experience can put fresh vigor into the party.

All these faux pas tell us that it is highly likely that once again political parties will become a gateway for many unqualified, opportunistic people obsessed with a parliamentary ambition. If voters do not remain watchful, the 20th National Assembly will become another league of its own.