Lee wins easily; his nomination seen as assured

Lee Hoi-chang achieved another landslide victory Thursday in the Grand National Party's presidential primary in Ulsan, a metropolitan city in South Gyeongsang province.

The former opposition party president took 59 percent, or 446, of the votes cast.

Choe Byung-yul finished second with with 206 votes, or 27.2 percent. Lee Bu-young followed with 73 votes, 9.7 percent, and Rhee Shang-hi trailed with 31 votes, 4.1 percent.

With two primaries down, Lee Hoi-chang has polled 1,157 votes, Mr. Choe 285, Lee Bu-young 274 and Mr. Rhee just 41.

The voting turnout was 69.8 percent of the 1,102 electors in Ulsan. Despite the small size of the electors group, political watchers were keen to see if Mr. Choe, a native of the Gyeongsang district, would manage to defeat Lee Hoi-chang, just as the probable ruling party presidential nominee, Roh Moo-hyun, had done in the Ulsan primary.

But Mr. Lee's overwhelming victory in Ulsan was taken to indicate that he would remain on top through the nine remaining primaries. If he is nominated, the supreme court justice turned politician would be staging a second presidential bid. He ran on the ruling-party ticket in 1997, losing by a thin margin to President Kim Dae-jung.

The opposition, in adopting a series of party reforms, held its first primary on April 13 in Incheon. By then, though, the figure seen as the strongest rival to Mr. Lee, Representative Park Geun-hye, a daughter of former President Park Chung Hee, had bolted from the party.

Mr. Lee on Thursday showed the confidence of a winner. Representative Lee Byung-suk, a press aide, released a statement reading, "Now we will face off against Roh Moo-hyun, DJ's legitimate son." "DJ" refers to Kim Dae-jung's initials.

Other candidates seemed disappointed at the way the primary is shaping up. Campaigners for Lee Bu-young, a party reformer, said he is considering closing down his campaign camp and stepping up his attack against the ruling party and the alleged corruption of the president's three sons.

by Choi Sang-yeon