The Grand Unified Democratic New Party (; GUDNP) was a political party of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. It was formed out of the

Uri Party The Yeollin Uri Party (), generally abbreviated to Uri Party (), was the ruling political party in South Korea from 2003–2007. It had a liberal political ideology in order to support then President Roh Moo-hyun. Chung Sye Kyun was the last ...

and its resulting splinter groups.

Chung Dong-young Chung Dong-young (born 27 July 1953 in Sunchang County, North Jeolla) is a politician and was the United New Democratic Party nominee for President of South Korea in 2007. From April 2004 until December 2005, Chung was the South Korean Minist ...

was the UNDP candidate in the

2007 South Korean presidential election Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2007. The election was won by Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party, returning conservatives to the Blue House for the first time in ten years. Lee defeated Grand Unified Democra ...

; he lost to

Lee Myung-bak Lee Myung-bak (; ; ; born 19 December 1941) is a South Korean businessman and politician who served as the 10th president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and the m ...

. On February 17, 2008, the party merged with the Democratic Party to form the United Democratic Party.

Brief history

The party was formed when loyalists to president Roh Moo-hyun in the

chose to break ranks from other party members who showed lukewarm support for the administration. Some 80 out of 152 lawmakers of the Uri Party joined the new party, a conservative-liberal minority group from the Hannara Party (led by

Son Hak-Gyu Sohn Hak-kyu (born 22 November 1947) is a South Korean politician and the former governor of Gyeonggi-do, the most populous province in Korea. He became a politician in 1996 as a congressman of Grand National Party, and became a governor of Gye ...

), and a group of progressive

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

' group from outside South Korean politics also joined, seeking to complete political reforms. As a result of merge with the

, this party has been ranked as the biggest political party in the

legislative A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

by 140 of 298 seats (as of January 14, 2008). After receiving a 'shocked' result at the 2007 presidential election, the delegates of its party decided to elect a new leader, with adopting a '

Papal conclave A papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church. ...

'-style system. On January 11, with more than a half delegates' vote,

was elected to lead at the 2008 parliamentary election.

Principles of policies

This party's platform emphasized these 4 key ideologies. *

Democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...

Peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

* Integration (political) *

Environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...

Presidential election primary

Timeline

These list of key events has been managed by its public primary election committee(국민경선위원회). *August 21 and August 22, 2007 - Official announcement has been made by its committee. Registration process has been done. *August 25, 2007 - The full list of official candidate for the primary has been announced. 'Cut-off' process begins. *August 27, 2007 - 'The policy debate' for its candidates has been done. *September 5, 2007 - The result of cut-off election (to nominate 5 candidates to go to its primary) will be announced. *September 5 to September 14, 2007 - Nationwide 'Policy debate'(tour) will be held in several cities. *September 15 to October 14, 2007 - The primary election will be held in 8 multi-regional areas. (''see 'Results' for more details'') *October 14, 2007 -

was elected as the official presidential candidate of the party.

Rules

* Cut-off process (August 25 ~ September 5) ** The official result of cut-off process has been combining a result from public poll(50%), and a poll result from its 10,000 randomly selected delegates(50%). 'Public poll' has been conducted from all eligible voters (whether this party is in favour or not). ** Top-5 candidates who earn more votes will join to its official primary''(Result has been announced-see 'Candidates')'' * Primary election (September 15 ~ October 14) The official result of this primary combines all votes of these key methods.

First-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast the ...

and

Electronic voting Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone ''electronic voting machines'' ( ...

system is being used. ** 1. Regional Rounds from 8 multi-provincial divisions (see below) ** 2. The total number of ' Mobile vote' cast ** 3. Public opinion polls which conducted from October 8 to 14 Method 1 and 2 grants exactly 90% of results (Method 3 grants 10%). The official candidate of this party will be nominated on October 14, just after the last regional rounds finishes. Due to the executives of this party's decision, All candidates did not contested during the Hangawi holidays and the

2007 Inter-Korean summit The 2007 Inter-Korean summit meeting was held between October 2 and October 4, 2007, in Pyongyang, between President Roh Moo-hyun of the Republic of Korea and Kim Jong-il of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). It is the second Inter ...

periods.

Candidates

As of August 25, 2007, 9 politicians has been set up to their presidential bid. Before starting their official primary to the South Korean public, they have to access the 'cut-off' process to reduce from 9 to 5. Later, the number of candidates reduced to 3 after ex-Health and Welfare Minister

Rhyu Si-min Rhyu Si-min (; born July 28, 1959) is a South Korean politician who served as the 44th Minister of Health and Welfare from February 2006 to May 2007. Before starting his political career since August 2002, he was a journalist of ''Dong-a Ilbo' ...

and former Prime Minister

Han Myeong-sook Han Myeong-sook (born March 24, 1944; ko, 한명숙 ) was the Prime Minister of South Korea from April 2006 to March 2007. She is South Korea's first female prime minister (second female prime minister overall if the acting premiership of Cha ...

quit the race. Here's a list of official candidates of the UNDP primary that announced on September 5, 2007, 05:30

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

. (Placed in order. Not considered its cut-off results. Based as of September 23, 2007)

Results

Source
The current status of the UNDP Primary
Seoprise.com, Retrieved on October 1, 2007.

Re-merge with Democratic Party

On February,2007, Kim-Han-Kil, who was the flood leader of Uri party, decided to defect Uri party (열린우리당) with 23 councilors. And, they formed the new party (their purpose was the destruction of Uri party (열린우리당), and the president Roh-Mu-Hyun, and his supporters). And some councilors of Uri party (열린우리당), supporters of Kim-Han-Kil, and supporters of Son-Hak-Gyu merged, and then they formed the United New Democracy Party (대통합민주신당). On February 17, 2008, the UNDP merged with the Democratic Party (민주당), forming the United Democratic Party (통합민주당). This was four years after the

(열린우리당)'s split from the

Millennium Democratic Party The Democratic Party (; DP) was a political party in South Korea. Formerly named Millennium Democratic Party (; MDP), it was renamed in May 6, 2005. After its dissolution, its members joined the Uri Party or the successor Democratic Party. Hi ...

(새천년민주당). 통합민주당 공식 출범

the Hankyoreh ''The Hankyoreh'' (, literally "The Korean Nation" or "One Nation") is a centre-left liberal daily newspaper in South Korea. It was established in 1988 after widespread purges forced out dissident journalists, and was envisioned as an alternat ...

, Retrieved on March 5, 2008

Election results

References

External links

Official Homepage
(International homepage is under construction)
Official Infopage for the 2007 presidential primary
{{South Korean political parties Democratic parties in South Korea Korean nationalist parties Defunct political parties in South Korea Political parties established in 2007 Political parties disestablished in 2008