Opposition party denounces defector's bid for by-elections

SEOUL, March 30 (Yonhap) -- The main opposition party expressed dismay Monday after a former member who defected to create a new party announced his bid for next month's parliamentary by-elections, saying he would only split votes in favor of the ruling party.

Chung Dong-young, a former three-term lawmaker and presidential candidate of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), left the party in January to help build a new left-leaning party ahead of the April 29 parliamentary elections. On Monday, he announced his bid for one of the four seats up for grabs -- in district B of Seoul's Gwanak District.

The elections are seen as a midterm referendum on President Park Geun-hye's conservative administration, which marked its two-year anniversary last month. Park's single, five-year term ends in February 2018, and by law, she cannot seek re-election.

"The victory of the Union of the People and Chung Dong-young will be a true judgment on the Park Geun-hye administration and create a political upheaval so that both the ruling and opposition parties will come to their senses," Chung said in a press conference at his office in Seoul, referring to the party in the making. "I want to create a place to lean on for people without power or money."

The NPAD, for whom Gwanak has been a stronghold region, denounced the move as a threat to the opposition camp.

"(Chung's) bid appears to have made the Gwanak-B election harder," Moon Jae-in, the NPAD's chairman, said in a meeting with reporters. "It's doubtful whether such actions dividing the opposition camp can win the public's support. I trust the people will make a wise judgment."

The NPAD's senior spokesman, Kim Yung-rok, also criticized the move.

"(Chung's) bid will jeopardize the embers of a change of administration, which are barely being kept alive," he said in a press briefing.

Park's ruling Saenuri Party expressed mixed views.

"If there are many (opposition candidates) ... it will be an advantage to the Saenuri Party," Rep. Lee Koon-hyon, the party's secretary general, said in an interview with a local radio station.

Rep. Cho Hae-jin, the party's senior deputy floor leader, recalled in a phone call with Yonhap News Agency that opposition parties and groups in the past have often formed election alliances right before the polls.

hague@yna.co.kr
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