By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
In the wake of its crushing defeat in the Dec. 19 presidential election, the liberal United New Democratic Party (UNDP) is making plans to revamp its leadership, policy lines and organization.
The party appointed advisor Kim Ho-jin to head an in-house innovation committee during its Supreme Council meeting Monday.
``I will do my utmost to map out measures to regain the trust and love from the public so as to rescue the party from the mire,'' Kim said after accepting the post.
He promised to present measures for the National Assembly elections scheduled for April 9 as well as for the party itself as soon as possible.
Secretary-General Chung Dong-chea will lead a preparatory committee for the Feb. 3 national convention to select new party leaders.
During the meeting, senior party officials called for prompt action.
``We cannot waste time any longer. We need to motivate our members to join the revamp movement,'' Rep. Chung Sye-kyun, former party chairman, said.
Amid the internal efforts, party members clashed over who was responsible for the defeat in the presidential poll.
Some lawmakers including Rep. Kim Han-gill who are distancing themselves from President Roh Moo-hyun blamed Roh loyalists, insisting that those people should step aside in the next administration.
They attributed the failure to President Roh and the pro-Roh group whose poor performance caused voters look elsewhere.
They also blamed the defeat on incompetent senior lawmakers who also served as Cabinet members under the incumbent government.
Roh loyalists rebutted the attack, saying it is not appropriate to argue who was at fault.
``The presidential candidate is the one who should take responsibility for the defeat. But before we quarrel about it, we should learn how to win back our supporters,'' Rep. Lee Hwa-young said.
Pro-Roh lawmakers and former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan plan to launch a committee to evaluate the election result and discuss their future plans, party sources said.
UNDP legislators also differed over how to select the next leaders.
While anti-Roh factions claimed that the next party chairman should be elected through a party primary, the other groups insisted on picking the party chairman through mutual consent without any direct voting.