Kang Ki-kab, the reformist interim chief of the embattled Unified Progressive Party, was elected Sunday as the new chairman with the task of hauling the party out of its months-long factional disputes.

His election is expected to turn around the party’s broken relations with the main opposition Democratic United Party and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

In a nationwide in-party vote that continued late into Saturday night, Kang won 55.8 percent, or 20,861 votes, beating his rival Kang Byeong-gi who received 44.2 percent, or 16,479 votes.

The latter was backed by the party’s defiant figures accused of rigging the proportional representative vote back in March and of supporting the North Korean regime.

Kang’s victory was regarded as a shift of power from the former mainstreamers to the reform-inclined faction.

He took an upper hand in the mobile vote held on the last day of the election, according to party officials.

The total voter turnout was 65.08 percent, an unusually high figure for an in-party leadership election.

“I feel burdened by the responsibility to heal the wounds which we have caused the people,” said the new chairman in his inaugural speech on Sunday.

“The UPP shall continue its bold actions for renewal and start anew as a more advanced and communicative progressive group.”

Kang will be working hand in hand with the new six-member Supreme Council, which consists of recently-elected floor leader Rep. Sim Sang-jeung, as well as two reformists, two former mainstreamers and one neutral figure.

The UPP is scheduled to hold its general meeting under the new leadership on Monday to discuss pending issues, including the possible expulsion of Reps. Lee Seok-ki and Kim Jae-yeon.

The two disputed proportional representatives have been under pressure to leave the party due to their alleged involvement in the party’s rigged primary in March.

Kang, as the party’s emergency leadership council chief, demanded that the duo take responsibility for the vote-rigging scandal and leave the party.

His stance on the defiant members is expected to alleviate the tension between the UPP and the DUP.

“We will complete the selection of our presidential candidate by September and immediately restore the opposition alliance that briefly faltered,” Kang said.

The two liberal parties earlier formed a left-unity before the April general elections but the DUP distanced itself from the UPP amid the latter’s vote-rigging scandal and pro-North image.

“We cannot wait forever for the UPP’s decision (on Lee and Kim),” the DUP’s floor leader Park recently told his counterpart Rep. Sim.

“In order to achieve power transfer, we must respect the public’s sentiment and win back its trust.”

Kang is to meet with DUP chief Rep. Lee Hae-chan as early as within the week to discuss the inter-party alliance for the December presidential election, according to officials.

He will also hold talks with the KCTU, which decided last month to suspend its longtime support for the UPP until the disputed lawmakers give up their seats.

Kang, former chief of the minority Democratic Labor Party, first joined the parliament in 2004 as a proportional representative and has ever since spoken for the rights of farmers and laborers.

Though sometimes blamed for leading violent actions of protest in the Assembly, he recently rose as a leading reformer by taking the UPP’s interim leader post and taking disciplinary action upon the party’s irregularity scandal.

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