Election task force to launch by year-end; 'secure candidates early'

Lee presses Cheon to answer call for southern Gyeonggi run

Reform Party emergency committee Chairman Lee Ki-in speaks at the party's first emergency committee meeting at the National Assembly on Wednesday, outlining plans to win 10 seats in the next general election. [Yonhap]
Reform Party emergency committee Chairman Lee Ki-in speaks at the party's first emergency committee meeting at the National Assembly on Wednesday, outlining plans to win 10 seats in the next general election. [Yonhap]

Lee Ki-in, chairman of the Reform Party's emergency committee, said Wednesday the party would move early to recruit election candidates and launch a general election task force by the end of this year.

Speaking at the party's first emergency committee meeting at the National Assembly that day, Lee said elections are hard for a third party even with early preparation. "Ten seats for the Reform Party in the next National Assembly — we will align our personnel, budget and policy capacity to that goal," he said.

He added that provincial party chapters whose terms expire at the end of September would be placed under an emergency framework, with the emergency committee to decide how chapter representatives are appointed and how the transition is structured.

Lee also pressed floor leader Cheon Ha-ram to accept a party request that he run in southern Gyeonggi Province. "I am not unaware of the ties you have built in your region or the weight of your political story," Lee said. "But if this is a strategy on which the party's survival and growth depend, anyone must be willing to reconsider their own candidacy plans. I ask floor leader Cheon to answer the call to run in southern Gyeonggi."

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Lee said he would ask Cheon to submit a record of his three years of community work in Suncheon — how he recruited party members and built the party's local presence and competitiveness. "We will judge it objectively, through the party's own process," Lee said. "Floor leader Cheon will also have to accept and be persuaded by the outcome. If he is not, we will have no choice but to act in accordance with the party constitution and rules. This must be resolved before the year is out."

Earlier, on Thursday, Lee had formally called on Cheon and fellow proportional-representation lawmaker Lee Ju-young to run in southern Gyeonggi Province. Of the two, Lee Ju-young has since announced she will seek a seat in the Suwon-jeong constituency in the next general election.


mp1256@heraldcorp.com