South Korea ruling party meets to pick new leaders

SEOUL: South Korea's conservative ruling party held a national convention Monday to pick a new leadership team as it struggles to refresh and rejuvenate its image before next year's elections.

The Grand National Party (GNP) will elect a new chairman or chairwoman from seven candidates, all in their late 40s or early 50s. The first four runners-up will fill supreme council posts.

The new leaders will help prepare the party for the general election next April and a presidential poll in December 2012.

The GNP's Lee Myung-Bak won a record victory margin in the December 2007 presidential election with his "Economy, First!" pledge but is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term.

His GNP rival Park Geun-Hye, daughter of late authoritarian President Park Chung-Hee, is seen as a strong contender for the presidency next year.

But she is not standing in Monday's vote because party rules stipulate that office-holders cannot contest the presidential nomination.

The GNP holds 171 seats in the 299-member parliament but suffered a bruising by-election setback in April, amid signs of a revival in support for the left-leaning Democratic Party.

While economic growth is strong, inflation remains high despite government efforts to curb prices, which have hit poorer voters especially hard.

Debates among the GNP candidates have centered on economic and welfare issues. Students have called for quick action to reduce high college tuition fees.

The party has long suffered tensions between supporters of Lee and those of Park, whom he narrowly beat for the previous presidential nomination.

Newspapers say Hong Joon-Pyo, a four-term lawmaker, is narrowly ahead in the party leadership race, closely followed by Na Kyung-Won and Won Hee-Ryong.

Seventy percent of votes in Monday's election will come from party members and the rest from a public opinion survey conducted by telephone among 3,000 citizens.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011