The emergency leadership of the scandal-ridden Unified Progressive Party on Friday decided to discipline two proportional lawmakers-elect allegedly involved in vote-rigging, signaling the beginning of a process to expel them from the party.

The emergency committee held a meeting in the afternoon and agreed to place lawmakers-elect Lee Seog-gi and Kim Jae-yeon under the party’s disciplinary committee, along with two other proportional representation candidates, for defying the party’s decision.

The expulsion process is likely to take at least several days, as the disciplinary committee must gain the approval of the respective regional party members.

The interim leadership led by Kang Ki-kab reached the decision as Lee and Kim refused to leave the party within the extended deadline of Friday at noon.

Kim and Lee are reportedly linked to the fabrication of ballots for the party’s selection of proportional candidates for the April 11 parliamentary election.

“It is inevitable that Kim and Lee face sanctions. There is internal feuding (over the decision) but what is important is the public. If we hesitate to innovate, progressive parties will face crisis,” Kang said prior to the meeting. While they will be expelled from the party, they will remain lawmakers.

The expulsion was widely called for as the UPP struggled to regain support from its longtime supporter, the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, which earlier this month threatened to axe its political ties with the party unless the problematic figures leave the party.

The party is also facing challenges from the ruling Saenuri Party, which is considering ways to ban controversial UPP members from joining the National Assembly’s defense and foreign affairs committees. It also refused to allocate the party a head seat of a standing committee, questioning the legitimacy of the lawmakers-elect, and asked the opposition parties’ support in dismissing Lee and Kim completely from the 19th Assembly.

The consensus of two-thirds of the Assembly is required to dismiss a lawmaker.

The UPP’s decision, made at the risk of the UPP losing two seats in the parliament, faced vehement opposition from Lee, Kim and their supporters.

“Investigating the truth about the scandal should come before creating a scapegoat,” they said at a protest held in front of the party headquarters.

Meanwhile, in an effort to ditch its pro-communist image, the UPP was seen to speak up on issues that were considered taboo internally, such as the North Korean regime and U.S. military issues.

“While an individual’s conscience and freedom of beliefs must be respected and protected, as a public official and as a public party, one must be able to comment on matters that the people have questioned, or requested clarification on,” Park Won-seok, head of the UPP reform committee, was quoted as saying in a radio interview. He was apparently referring to a recent controversy over a UPP member dodging questions on his views about North Korea’s nuclear ambition and hereditary dictatorship on a TV debate program.

“We need a more transparent attitude, to criticize what needs to be criticized but remaining calm over excessive criticism,” Park added.

The party has remained tightlipped about the succession of the Kim regime and human rights violations in the communist state, claiming that refraining from offending the North will facilitate the unification of the countries.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)