Parties squabble over candidate nomination rules ahead of April election

여야, 공천잡음+사회적 약자 및 여성 공천 우대
Korea's political parties are racing to complete the process of nominating candidates for an upcoming election on April 13th.
But they're getting tripped up by in-fighiting over the candidate nomination rules.
Ji Myung-kil explains.
The infighting within the Saenuri Party can be traced back to a power struggle between those loyal to President Park Geun-hye and those who aren't.
Party chair Kim Moo-sung, who is part of the non-Park faction, wants an open primary,... where party members and citizens choose the candidates,... to keep powerful people and factions from dominating the process.
Lee Han-koo, a pro-Park lawmaker,... is using a top-down process, in which the party chooses.
Lee is also the chief of the party's nominating committee, and he declared last week that 23 districts -- three districts within each of the 17 most hotly contested metropolitan cities and provinces around the country -- will follow a top-down system.

The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea's nominating committee is also taking a top-down approach.
It decided that the bottom 20 percent of the 127 party members who were elected in 2012... will not be allowed to run this year... to make room for fresh faces.
That's 25 lawmakers, and of them, ten have left the party and five have declared they aren't running, so only ten have been disqualified.
Still, the decision has already prompted a backlash within the party's rank and file.

Minjoo's philosophical ally, the newly minted People's Party, selected 49 candidates on Wednesday through a combination of party recommendations and public opinion polls.
Minjoo has called for a merger of the two parties, but the People's Party remains divided over the prospect.

All three parties are also scrambling to woo members of under-represented groups,... including women, young people and the disabled.
People from these groups will get an extra 10 to 25 percent more points toward their candidate applications.
In addition, first-time candidates will get 10 to 20 percent more points than incumbent lawmakers.
Parties will also reserve 10-percent more of their proportional representative seats for women.
Ji Myung-kil, Arirang News.

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