Rival factions in the Unified Progressive Party appear headed for a showdown over party control in the wake of a vote-rigging scandal.

The new leadership panel led by reformers issued an ultimatum on Wednesday to four lawmakers-elect, demanding they voluntarily give up their seats by Friday or be expelled from the party.

“Unless the four remaining figures submit their resignations by noon Friday, the council may take the ultimate and undesirable measure,” said Kang Ki-kab, chief of the party’s emergency leadership council.

He implied that the council will take forceful steps to expel Lee Seog-gi and Kim Jae-yeon, despite protests from their supporters.

“The resignation is the priority for the party to overcome its current crisis,” he said.

The warning came after four proportional representative elects rejected the council’s earlier request to step down by Monday morning.

Three members of the party’s former mainstreamers fired back by filing an injunction with a court to suspend the new emergency leaders claiming its establishment was illegal.. Its establishment was passed via an electronic vote two weeks ago by central committee members in a process which they call a violation of party regulations.

“The central committee’s decision should be invalidated and the current emergency committee chairman’s duty based on the decision should be suspended,” they said in their injunction claim.

UPP insiders said the committee may revise party regulations to speed up the expulsion process.

The current party constitution and regulations allow members to object to the party’s expulsion order or request an additional investigation once ordered to leave the party. The process may take up to 194 days.

The dispute was further complicated by an ongoing prosecutorial investigation into the election fraud and violence at a recent party meeting. Investigators confiscated the party’s computer servers containing the member register and election-related information.

Anxiety rose within the UPP over the possibility that the prosecution would use the member register to expand its investigation into party members and their supporters.

“The prosecution, by seizing the party’s member register, intended to gain control over all progressive figures,” said the council’s spokesperson Lee Jeong-mi.

The list supposedly contains the detailed personal information of some 130,000 current and former members.

The prosecution, however, claimed that the list will only be used to look into vote-rigging allegations related to the party’s primaries earlier this year.

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