The Unified Progressive Party will kick off its new leadership early next month while it continues to seek expulsion of its defiant lawmakers by the end of this month.

The scandal-ridden party held a national committee meeting on Saturday and decided to hold a leadership election this month to pick a chairperson and the supreme council, as well as delegates and regional chiefs.

The corresponding vote will take place on June 25-29, after candidates register themselves on June 17-18, according to officials.

The elected leadership is to kick off on July 8, succeeding the former chairmanship consisting Lee Jung-hee, Rhyu Si-min, Sim Sang-jeong and Cho Jun-ho.

“It is most crucial that we hold a lawful and impartial election in order to shake off the doubts cast upon our party and to unite the party members as one,” UPP’s interim chief Kang Ki-kab said.

“The UPP’s next leadership is to act as a frontrunner for progressive politics, and for this effort, the emergency leadership council has to act as a foothold.”

Rhyu, Sim and Cho, before stepping down last month, nominated former Democratic Labor Party chairperson Kang as chief of the party’s emergency leadership council.

Kang’s tasks were to expell the defiant lawmakers, lead the scandal investigation and elect a new leadership.

However, a group of defiant members who supported Lee formed a separate council and rebelled against Kang’s authority to expel party members and lead the in-party vote.

“The defiant members should stop referring to themselves as an emergency leadership council as they hold no authority over the party’s decision-making,” said spokesperson Lee Jeong-mi on Friday, delivering a strong warning to the resisting group.

While the troubled party geared up for its leadership election, it also continued to seek for the expulsion of the two controversial lawmakers Lee Seog-gi and Kim Jae-yeon along with two other proportional candidates, who refused to step down.

Lee and Kim were not only involved in the party’s allegedly rigged primary but also belong to a far-leftist faction, which is widely suspected of paying allegiance to the North Korean communist regime.

The party’s ethics committee convened on Sunday before deciding on disciplining the four members.

Kim appeared at the meeting and requested to be given more time to explain herself. Lee also submitted a written request for delay citing the same reason. The committee’s decision to discipline the members in question will be reserved for two weeks for any objection before deciding on the final level of reprimand: expulsion. The final decision to expel them will also require a majority consensus from the party lawmakers.

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