South Korea’s main opposition party elected a former confidant of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun as its new leader on Sunday, giving him a mandate to rebuild the embattled party.
Rep. Moon Jae-in, who served as Roh’s chief of staff during his term from 2003 to 2008, won the race for chairman of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy to beat his rival Park Jie-won, a three-term lawmaker, in the national convention.
Moon replaces, the current interim chief, Moon Hee-sang, who took office in September after his predecessor resigned amid factional infighting.
NPAD has been headed by the interim leader since its two co-leaders — Kim Han-gil and Ahn Cheol-soo — stepped down to take responsibility for the party’s crushing defeat in July’s parliamentary by-elections.
The new NPAD leader is faced with a daunting task of regaining public confidence in the opposition party which has been dogged by infighting between a pro-Roh faction and others.
A weekly survey by Gallup Korea showed Friday that the approval rating for NPAD came to 24 percent, far lower than 41 percent for the ruling party.
The new leader is seen as a potential presidential candidate in the next election slated for late 2017. In the previous election in December 2012, Moon was the standard-bearer of NPAD’s predecessor but he eventually lost to then candidate and now President Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party.
Before the national convention, Moon said he would not stand for the next parliamentary elections scheduled for 2016 i f he is elected chairman. (Yonhap)
