NPAD lost register of 360,000 citizens

The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy lost a register of 360,000 civilian voters ahead of a party convention on Feb. 8 next year, which will elect its new leadership. Watchers speculate that the list might have gone missing when the party relocated its office in August last year, but others say that someone might have intentionally siphoned it off in order to influence the convention. NPAD. The opposition, which has stepped up criticism against the presidential office`s leak of documents, has completely lost justification to criticize the latter.

The register of civilian voters was used twice in 2012, when the party elected its chairman and presidential candidate. The election regulation in NPAD’s constitution suggests, "The election reflects one sixth of the survey result after the voters enlisted on the register cast their ballots." The party hasn`t decided the reflection rate for each group - representatives; members with a voting right; ordinary members; and the public - at next year’s primary convention. But if the result of an opinion poll among ordinary members and the public is reflected by 20 percent to 30 percent, the party has lost the subjects who will reflect one sixth of the opinion poll, or 3.3 percent to 5 percent. The loss of the register is set to add fuel to conflict between factions within the party, which is intensifying over the rules of party election.

Whenever elections of its key party posts took place, NPAD have had intense internal dispute over the register of voters and election rules. In the 2007 election to choose the party’s presidential candidate, 220,000, or one fourth of 890,000 people registered in the voter register, were proved to be counterfeit. When selecting party leadership and presidential candidate in 2012, the party experienced fierce controversy over the list of civilian voters and mobile balloting. As the pro-Roh Moo-hyun prevailed, the faction swept the party chairman and presidential candidate, influencing the candidate nomination process for public officials and party leadership posts. The main opposition party is applying strict rules for democracy externally, while managing internal democracy shamefully at best.

That`s why factional strife within the party created the term "pro-Roh hegemonism," which is considered the party`s chronic illness. As the pro-Roh faction unilaterally drove the party toward a hard-line stance, it had significant influence on political situations. At the upcoming party convention in February, Supreme Council members Chung Sye-kyung and Park Jie-won and Moon Jae-in, who is effectively the leader of the pro-Roh faction, will highly likely run for party chairmanship. Amid President Park Geun-hye’s approval rating diving due to documents leak at the presidential office and suspicions over influence-peddling, the main opposition party has failed to give any positive impression or a glimmer of hope to the public. Worse still, the party lost a register of civilian voters, proving its incompetence and internal feud.