By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter

The opposition Grand National Party (GNP) reelected Rep. Park Geun-hye as its leader at a national convention in Seoul on Monday.

Park, who is considered one of the strongest GNP candidates for the 2007 presidential election, will lead the party until July 2006, a year prior to the poll to elect the head of state.

The presidential office of Chong Wa Dae and the ruling Uri Party issued statements saying they hope the opposition party leader will pursue a new politics of unity and cooperation.

It is the second time for Park to be elected as the party’s leader since March 23 when she temporarily took the post after her predecessor, Choe Byung-yul, was forced to resign amid mounting public criticism over the party’s illegal fundraising.

In her acceptance speech, Park said she will map out a blue print by the end of this year to make South Korea an advanced country. ``I will develop South Korea into an advanced nation in both categories of economy and the quality of life,’’ Park said.

She enjoyed a whopping 84.5 percent of support in total, making Rep. Won Hee-ryong a distant runner-up with 26.1 percent of support.

Around 8,000 party members gathered at Chamsil Stadium in southeastern Seoul to participate in the direct vote, which accounted for 50 percent of the total result. Opinion polls conducted on Sunday made up 30 percent of the result, while Internet voting decided the remaining 20 percent.

Under the new ``collective leadership system,’’ Park will lead a five-seat supreme council, which was filled by those finishing in the top five _ Reps. Park, Won, Kim Young-sun, Lee Kang-too and Lee Q-taek _ among the seven candidates.

Rep. Chung Ui-hwa and a rank-and-file member Kwak Young-hoon also unsuccessfully ran for the party leadership.

To pave the way for the 2007 presidential election, Park needs to prove, first of all, that she has ability to overcome opposition which has recently surfaced from within the party, according to political analysts.

There has been a growing antagonism towards her by some of the party’s multi-term lawmakers, including Lee Jae-oh, who claimed that she is too weak as an opposition party leader and the GNP should not accept the daughter of late dictator Park Chung-hee as its leader.

Lee is one of three third-term GNP lawmakers who boycotted the leadership contest. Reps. Lee, Kim Moon-soo and Hong Joon-pyo allegedly have ties with Seoul City Mayor Lee Myung-bak, who is also considered a strong candidate of the GNP for the presidential election in 2007.

Yoon Yeo-joon, former lawmaker and the party’s top strategist, said what Park needs to do at the moment is to display her own policies rather than trying to make use of her image as the daughter of a former president.

``Park can’t succeed as a politician without having a foresight to the future of the country, policies to lead the country in right direction and strategies to push her will through difficulties,’’ Yoon said.

Park managed to bring the party safely through the April 15 general elections and win a landslide victory in the June 5 local elections after she momentarily took the helm of the party in March when the approval rating of the GNP hit bottom after it spearheaded a motion to impeach President Roh Moo-hyun.

Meanwhile, the convention was marked by a few changes with past conventions, including a musical performance by lawmakers. Also, high-ranking party members sat on the stand together with rank-and-file members.

im@koreatimes.co.kr