The main opposition Democratic United Party rejected the Unified Progressive Party’s proposal to form an alliance to fight what the leftists call a politically motivated investigation.

“We believe that the top priority for the UPP is to restore its internal order and regain the people’s trust,” DUP interim chief Park Jie-won said on Sunday.

The two parties joined forces in the parliamentary elections in April. But the liberal DUP has been distancing itself from the alliance as the UPP’s image is tainted by a vote-rigging scandal and accusations of its leaders’ past pro-North Korea activities.

Park stressed that the DUP must not be affected from the recent scandals embroiling the minority party.

“The two parties may be partners on some agendas but in fact hold different views and policies,” he told reporters on Monday.

“We must stay firm as the leading center-left party in order to win in the year-end presidential election.”

The party chief nevertheless expressed concerns over the prosecution’s seizure of the UPP’s member register as part of its probe into the allegations of election fraud.

“It seems that the prosecution is excessively intervening in politics by confiscating the member list, which may be regarded as the heart of a political party,” he said.

“Under no circumstances must the authorities make ill use of the given information.”

The UPP’s emergency leader council chairman Kang Ki-kab on Saturday staged a protest against the prosecutorial raid over the party headquarters and the seizure of the member register.

“The prosecution’s extortion of the party member register does not just involve the UPP but the entire political circuit,” Kang said, pledging to form an inter-party alliance.

Prosecutorial officials seized the UPP’s online vote-managing servers last Tuesday after violent clashes with the resisting party members. The action came as internal feuds deepened in the leftist party and the decision-making body was set to expel the proportional lawmakers-elect.

The UPP convened its ethics committee on Monday to discuss the detailed process of driving out Lee Seog-gi, Kim Jae-yeon and two other candidates.

Lee and Kim earlier transferred their membership to the party’s Gyeonggi branch office to dodge the central headquarters’ disciplinary actions.

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