The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) plans to grade incumbents based on their legislative activities and approval ratings and replace unpopular representatives with competitive alternatives for the April general elections, officials said Monday.

The party's emergency council reached an agreement to field fresh faces in 25 percent of 245 local districts, while choosing candidates in the remaining electorates through open contests attended by both party and non-party members, GNP spokesman Hwang Young-chul said.

To conduct tougher screenings, the emergency council's subcommittee unveiled their draft of a new nomination standard that will assess incumbents through both quantitative and qualitative

criteria: legislative activities, residents' preference for a new figure, approval ratings against potential candidates and performance in their districts.

In addition, incumbents with pending court cases related to bribery or sexual misconduct will be ineligible to win the party ticket.

The standard is aimed at leaving less room for nepotism and corruption in the process of choosing candidates in local districts, as the struggling party strives to replace its scandal-ridden image with a fair and transparent system,

"I think nomination is the core of the party's reform drive,"

Rep. Park Geun-hye, who leads the party's emergency council, said.

"As past nomination practices were not fair, there has been distrust and the party suffered in the aftermath (of those elections)."

A group of reform-minded GNP lawmakers also on Monday called for the party to abolish its headquarters system led by a chairman in light of bribery allegations made about the 2008 leadership election and involving former party chiefs and senior officials.

Currently, the GNP operates as a two-tiered system in which a floor leader makes legislative decisions and a chairperson takes charge of party affairs and election campaigns. This system has been partly blamed for the costly operation of local branches across the nation.

Their demand for a complete system overhaul, however, is likely to face opposition within the party as it gears up for election campaigns for the April general vote, which is considered a crucial test before the ensuing presidential race in December. (Yonhap News)