The ruling Saenuri Party’s floor leader Lee Hahn-koo, a day after offering his resignation, said Thursday that Rep. Chung Doo-un, who is facing bribery charges, must leave the party and be placed under arrest.

Lee’s outburst escalated the turmoil within the ruling party prompted by the parliamentary rejection of the prosecution’s motion to arrest Chung on Wednesday, leading to an en masse offer of resignation by the floor leadership.

Their resignations are set to be discussed at the party’s general meeting on Friday.

“The Saenuri Party that was promoting relinquishment of privileges ended up only showing (the members) attempting to protect their own,” Lee told Yonhap News.

“Chung must appear before the prosecution himself and receive the investigation under arrest, and also leave the party,” he said.

In an overwhelming vote, 156 lawmakers voted down the request by the prosecution to arrest Chung, who had faced an arrest for questioning on his alleged collusion with former lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, an older brother of President Lee Myung-bak, in a bribery investigation. It was in contrast to the overwhelming consent for the arrest of independent Rep. Park Joo-sun, who has been sentenced to a two-year jail term for illegal campaigning.

The anonymous vote was attended by 137 Saenuri members, 120 main opposition Democratic United Party members, and 24 non-negotiating party members.

Upon the outcome, the opposition forces rapped the majority ruling party and the presidential frontrunner Rep. Park Geun-hye.

“The boisterous pledges by the Saenuri Party to put down their privileges turned out to be a show in just a month’s time,” DUP floor leader Park Jie-won said at a party meeting Thursday.

“If the Saenuri Party’s former chairwoman Park emphasized so much on principle and conviction, shouldn’t she have attended the plenary session?” he said, referring to how Park was absent from the Wednesday votes. Park was also absent from the first session of her standing committee, the Strategy and Finance Committee, the next day.

The Saenuri Party, in turn, countered that some of the opposition members also voted to veto the prosecutors’ request to arrest Chung, which they claimed was to prepare ahead of the expanding bribery probe also targeting DUP floor leader Park.

“When you look at the results, it appears that opposition members including from the DUP also took part in the rejection. It appears to have been an attempt to leave a scratch on the Saenuri’s reform move, and also to prevent any prosecution probe or motion for the arrest of floor leader Rep. Park Jie-won,” Saenuri Party spokesman Kim Young-woo said.

Major parties have vowed to give up their privileges such as in retirement pension and the immunity from detention. The latest vote is expected to damage the Saenuri Party’s drive led by Lee Hahn-koo for reform such as by giving up their pension retirement.

The vote to approve Chung’s detainment, however, had met opposition from the party members, as they questioned the legitimacy of the motion as Chung had already expressed a wish to voluntarily appear before the court questioning on his arrest.

“The reason why Chung’s arrest motion was denied, was because party members viewed it problematic to (approve the detainment) when there were flaws in the current law,” Rep. Kim Yong-tae said.

Party’s inside sources suggest the party leadership may have overlooked such widespread opposition from party members before attending the voting session.

Lee Hahn-koo, in the meantime, argued the Saenuri Party must do away with its arrogance and offer an apology to the people.

Chung also expressed his side of the story in a text message to reporters, saying that he has always been open to cooperating with the prosecution investigation.

“While it is correct to say that as members of the Constitutional organization, each lawmaker is entitled to vote based on their own beliefs, the Wednesday votes have failed to show the citizens a healthy start of the 19th National Assembly,” said politics professor Yoon Pyung-joong at Hanshin University.

But while the latest fiasco will give more burden on the Saenuri Party’s presidential frontrunner in the lead up to the presidential election, it could also be an opportunity, he said.

“If the Saenuri Party succeeds in forming the new floor leadership with an appropriate team, it could be a turning point for Park Geun-hye as well,” Yoon said, adding that the Saenuri Party leadership’s failure to persuade their members may have also alleviated the negative image of Park’s omnipotent presence of the party.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)