The scandal-ridden Unified Progressive Party is to begin a five day-long leadership election Monday that is expected to set the future of the feuding leftist party.

The party is to hold an online vote from Monday to Friday to select a new chairperson and a five-member Supreme Council, which will take over the functions of the current emergency leadership council.

The race for the chairmanship is to be a two-way competition between interim chief Kang Ki-kab and Kang Byeong-gi who represents the former mainstreamers’ group.

Kang Ki-kab represents the reformers and has pledged to expel Reps. Lee Seok-ki and Kim Jae-yeon ― the two key figures in the party’s vote-rigging scandal in the April general elections.

The other Kang, however, said the duo should not be expelled from the party until the fact-finding committee proves them responsible for the irregularity.

Lee and Kim earlier blamed the panel’s initial report for being groundless and partial, and demanded further investigation.

The fact-finding panel’s final report is expected to be announced as early as Monday, after being reviewed and adopted by the party’s national committee, according to officials.

Also, the party is scheduled to hold its disciplinary committee on Tuesday, during which the disputed duo may be expelled, regardless of their intention.

As the party prepared for the busy week ahead, a new allegation was raised that the former mainstreamers once again attempted to rig the upcoming leadership race through a false registration of members.

Song Jae-young, a reformer candidate for the party’s Gyeonggi Province branch office, issued a statement on Saturday claiming that dozens of party members were registered from an identical address in Seongnam.

“Among the party’s registered voters, 160 were suspected of false registration and 61 were listed at the same address,” he said.

The corresponding address turned out to be a Chinese restaurant, he added.

“It is shocking that the party’s member list is still filled with manipulated information, while it is still to recover from the aftermath of the voting irregularity scandal,” he said.

The outcome of this week’s race is to affect unity the UPP was hoping to achieve with the main opposition Democratic United Party ahead of the December presidential election.

“If the former mainstreamers win over the party’s leadership and annul the expulsion of Lee and Kim, the people will turn their back (on the UPP and the left unity),” said DUP floor leader Rep. Park Jie-won.

DUP chief Rep. Lee Hae-chan also hinted that the inter-party alliance will depend on the UPP’s new leadership.

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