The left-wing’s inter-party merger committee substantially completed the preparatory steps to kick off a united liberal party, ahead of the general and presidential elections slated for next year.

The joint committee held its second and last official meeting Thursday to confirm the name, constitution and leader selection rules of the new party, which is to combine the main opposition Democratic Party, the Citizen Integration Party and the Korean Federation of Trade Unions.

The two parties agreed in late night negotiations on Wednesday to hold a national convention on Jan. 15 and to elect a six-member decision-making body, including the party’s chairperson.

An internal cutoff election is also to take place on Dec. 26 to sort out nine candidates among some twenty figures who have set out to challenge the chairmanship, officials said.

Currently, 15 DP members and five CIP members are known to ready themselves for the race.

The DP list includes former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook and former floor leader Park Jie-won.

Though Park took a steady lead in in-party public polls, he has recently faltered, facing the blame of fostering the violent backlash against left-wing consolidation.

Former actor and co-representative of the CIP Moon Seong-geun is also expected to join the race as well.

The actual leadership vote is to consist of 30 percent of party delegate ballots and 70 percent of citizen ballots, based on an earlier agreement made by DP chairman Sohn Hak-kyu and CIP officials.

The committee is to officially confirm the inter-party unity as early as Friday and to establish a temporary leadership system to take over until January’s convention, officials said.

According to the DP’s constitution, Rep. Sohn is slated to end his chairmanship by Sunday at the latest, in order to join the presidential race next November.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)