The ruling Saenuri Party on Sunday struggled to contain the fallout from a cash-for-nomination scandal, which observers say could deliver a major blow to its top presidential hopeful Rep. Park Geun-hye.

Park expressed regret over the scandal.

“Though the truth is yet to be clarified, I am sorry that such allegations had to be raised,” she said on Sunday, during an open policy forum with students.

The burgeoning scandal has apparently undermined her efforts to shed the party’s corrupt image, which helped it clinch an upset victory in the April general elections. Before the polls, she had vowed to stamp out any corruptive electoral procedurals in the party.

The unexpected allegations erupted last week that proportional representative Rep. Hyun Young-hee paid 300 million won ($264,667) to former lawmaker Hyun Ki-hwan back in March, in exchange for her parliamentary candidacy in the April 11 general elections.

The two deny the allegations.

Amid mounting calls for his resignation, floor leader Rep. Hwang Woo-yea suggested an emergency meeting of the party leadership, election committee and all presidential candidates to discuss “all issues” involved in the scandal.

“Now is an important time when we should devote all of our efforts to the party’s unity and election victory,” Hwang said.

“In order to keep our promise to the people and to promote the spirit of party politics, we should above all abide by the primary process and schedule.”

The underdog candidates ― Yim Tae-hee, Kim Tae-ho, Ahn Sang-soo and Kim Moon-soo who threatened to boycott the party’s primary after the scandal flared up ― have demanded that Hwang bow out by Saturday.

Ahn earlier demanded that Rep. Park give up her candidacy, in case the two Hyuns turn out to be guilty, especially as the two are said to be pro-Park members.

The party chief’s compromising actions were made largely for the sake of presidential contestant Rep. Park who has currently taken an unbeatable lead within the party.

While Hwang set out to deal with the internal backlash, party spokesperson Kim Young-woo offered his resignation, taking the blame over the scandal.

“Someone should take responsibility and apologize to the people, but we cannot have our party’s leading candidate take the action as she has already sacrificed twice in times of crisis,” Kim said.

By this, he referred to Rep. Park who was the party’s interim chief before the April elections, when the alleged bribe took place.

The party also initiated the procedures to strip the two Hyuns of their party membership.

The Supreme Council already decided in an emergency meeting last week to recommend the two to voluntarily defect from the party. It also called for an ethics committee to be held within the week to review the case.

Though the prosecution is developing its probe, it is the party leadership’s stance that political actions must be made in order to save the party’s reputation from the aftermath of the bribery scandal.

“It is the duty of those accused of nomination bribery to quit immediately, not to ask for legal judgment,” said the party’s senior advisor Choe Byung-yul.

The two, however, still remained in denial of their given charges.

“If I give in to the accusations and defect from the party, it may give out the wrong signals that I actually did something wrong,” said the former lawmaker.

“The top priority is to reveal the truth through prosecutorial investigation so I will not accede to the defection calls.”

Rep. Hyun offered to abide by the party’s decision, though she also denied the bribery allegations.

The proportional representative would lose her parliamentary seat if she quits voluntarily, but would maintain her position if kicked out by the party’s decision.

Amid the party’s growing dilemma, the Busan District Prosecutor’s Office seized and searched the residence and office of Rep. Hyun on Saturday and found evidence of a massive cash withdrawal, officials said on Sunday.

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