Questions for GNP

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Questions for GNP

One month has passed since President Lee Myung-bak was sworn in. Today, registration of candidates for the April 19 legislative elections starts, but the Grand National Party is still going through chaos as the disquiet over party nominations leads to a power struggle. There is no political leadership to bring this situation under control. The Blue House passes down the job to the GNP and the party is only watching the president.
The GNP must answer the following questions which arose in the party nomination process. Talking about the party nominations for constituencies of 245 members, Park Geun-hye, the former party chairwoman, said that lies and betrayals became commonplace and that she was tricked, and the nation was tricked. Is her perception about the situation correct? Some maintain that a thorough change is needed to meet the public demand to replace 38 sitting GNP members in the Gyeongsang provinces with fresh faces.
But Park, the most influential politician of the party, made a claim that runs counter to the party’s official stance, leaving voters confused. To clear the confusion, President Lee should reveal what he thinks about the party nominations. Does he think there is something to apologize for? Does he think Park’s claim is wrong?
The second question is raised by 55 party members who won the party nominations, including Park Chan-sook, who runs for the constituency of Suwon and Yeongtong. They maintain that the elections in the Seoul metro area fall into an emergency situation as Lee Sang-deuk, the president’s brother, earned the party nomination. They demanded that the GNP lawmaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly give up his party nomination. Deputy Speaker Lee said he couldn’t meet their demand because there is an ill-intended conspiracy among those 55 members who want to remove him and take power. It seems that a decision should be made between two choices. Either Lee or the 55 members who earned the party nominations withdraw.
What is the GNP stance? Deputy Speaker Lee has won election more times than anyone in the party and holds the top position in the National Assembly and is a brother of the president. Nobody in the GNP has influence over him. The president must speak up, whether he believes his brother’s claim or whether he will ask his brother to make a sacrifice. His opinion about Lee Jae-oh and Chung Doo-un, the other side of the power struggle, must be uncovered as well.
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