An ex-judge will square off against an economist in Monday’s governing Saenuri Party floor leadership primary, an election whose winner will play a pivotal role in implementing President Park Geun-hye’s economic reforms this year.
Rep. Lee Ju-young will face off against Rep. Yoo Seong-min. Lee is a former judge and a four-term lawmaker. Yoo is a three-term legislator and a former researcher at the Korea Development Institute, a state-run think tank focusing on economic policies.
The primary is expected to be close. But whoever wins will play the unofficial party whip of the majority Saenuri Party in the National Assembly, as President Park struggles to push through an array of unpopular reforms to areas including civil servants’ pension and the labor market.
Many of her proposals have drawn mixed responses from the public at best, compelling vote-wary legislators to defer passing related amendments, with just over one year left until the 2016 parliamentary elections.
Analysts consider Lee to be a pro-Park figure, and if he wins, the lawmaker is likely to support many, although not all of the president’s reforms, by passing related revisions in the Assembly. If Yoo wins, he is expected to take a more critical approach to Park’s policies.
The reforms on the nation’s pension for retired bureaucrats have drawn a fierce backlash from government officials, the main beneficiaries of the pension.
Park proposes decreasing the government’s gross payouts from the pension, as it is expected to deplete national coffers in the coming decades, burdening future taxpayers.
Public officials against the reform say that the pension compensates them for their relatively low wages.
By Jeong Hunny ()
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
