Rep. Shin Ki-nam became the latest to defect from the main opposition party on Sunday, announcing he was leaving the party that had reprimanded him over an influence-peddling case. 

The Minjoo Party of Korea’s ethics committee had slapped him with a three-month suspension on Jan. 25 over an allegation that he pressed the law school that his son attends to pass him through the bar exam. The suspension effectively stripped him of the right to be nominated to run in the April 13 general elections.

The four-term lawmaker is a former reformist in the party that had jointly led the move by Democratic Party dissenters to launch the Uri Party in 2003 in support of then-President Roh Moo-hyun. The Uri Party later remerged with the renamed United New Democratic Party, a precursor to The Minjoo Party of Korea, in 2007 after election defeats.

Shin said in a press conference that he was being forced to sacrifice for the sake of the party’s political maneuvering, claiming he never attempted to exert power over his son’s school authorities.

“(I refuse to accept the party’s decision) because it is not just. This is not the party reinforcing its ethical standard, but it is simply a disaster,” he said.

He alleged that the party was making him a scapegoat in discarding the old guard, and that it was preplanned to front-load a different candidate in his constituency in the Gangseo district of Seoul. The Minjoo Party is said to be planning to nominate in his stead lawyer Geum Tae-seop, a former campaigner for Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo during his presidential election bid in 2012.

Shin is expected to run independently, while some party members also speculated he could choose to join the minor People’s Party, led by Rep. Ahn.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)