This is an interesting development (from the K Herald, read it quick before it goes to subscription hell):
The ruling Uri party plans to introduce an open primary for the presidential nomination to pave way for the injection of new blood to the party, officials said.
Under the planned primary rule, the party will select a presidential candidate solely based on votes from the general public. Currently, party delegates and members account for 50 percent of the votes, while the other half come from nonmember ballots.
The sweeping change is likely to reshape the electoral scene, with people casting votes along crowded streets instead behind closed-door
When they say ‘votes from the general public,’ that is exactly what they mean. Korea does not have party registration (In fact, there is no voter registration at all. That is one of the many things covered by the family registry system.). Party membership consists of those who pay a fee to the party.*
This brings up an immediate question to my mind; what is to prevent GNP supporters from playing with the system? Considering the low support levels of support that the two leading figures in the Uri party currently have, a popular moderate (or even conservative) from the GNP could step in and take the party’s nomination. Heck, unless the Grand National Party gives Lee Myung-bak a fair shot at their nomination, he might just take the Uri nomination as a supplement to an independent campaign.
On the other hand, this could make it easier for a ‘draft Goh Kun’ campaign to give him the nomination without his actively compeating for it, which would allow him to maintain his strategy of running for president while not running for president.
*This is the cause of an occational scandal when some rich guy tries to buy a party office by paying for the party membership of a bunch of his suppporters.
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One Comment
Well, President Roh’s and the Uri party’s future are uncertain that’s for sure true. As I see it, I can draw a lot of similarities between Roh and Clinton, not least of which are they have both been impeached and extremely crappy presidents. But the larger question is, how will this leader be remembered in a historical perspective? I suspect similarly to how Snake-Oil Salesmen Willie (Pres. Clinton) is being remembered, as a complete embarrassment to his country, and any post-presidential opinions he conveys completely ignored or summarily dismissed.
Unfortunately for the Roh family, they are as familiar as the Clinton family with their share of scandals.
http://hunjang.blogspot.com/20.....other.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wor.....535143.stm
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti.....53602.html
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/.....ntid=27927
http://english.peopledaily.com.....2575.shtml
etc., etc., etc., …
In regards to the Uri party, I don’t think any attempt it makes now to become more mainstream and representative of the people will make any difference in the coming election. They have made their bed, now it’s time to sleep in it, now matter how uncomfortable it is for them — the Democrats got use to it eventually too.
–Remort