SEOUL, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- South Korea's governing Grand National Party hopes to burnish its image with a name change before the upcoming parliamentary election.
Surveys of proposed names and logos will be conducted among party members during the weekend, Yonhap News Agency reported. Hwang Young-chul, a GNP spokesman, said a general meeting has been scheduled for Monday to approve a new name, which will be announced at the end of the week.
The party has been hit by a series of scandals sending its standing in the polls tumbling. They include the recent revelations that Park Hee-tae, a former party chairman who now serves as speaker of the National Assembly, offered to pay for votes during the 2008 party leadership election.
Some GNP legislators have suggested disbanding the party and creating a new one.
The Grand National Party has been operating under that name since a 1997 merger. Party name changes are common in South Korea, where new political groupings tend to form with every national election, and the GNP's 15-year run under one name is a record.
