The ruling party elected Ahn Sang-soo, a four-term lawmaker and close confidant of President Lee Myung-bak, as its new chairman on Wednesday as it looks to revamp itself after an embarrassing defeat in last month's local elections.
The new leader of the Grand National Party (GNP) will lead the party for two years.
Ahn, 64, co-chaired Lee's presidential election campaign in 2007 and worked as the party's floor leader twice. He is one of the key members of the GNP's faction loyal to the president.
The prosecutor-turned-politician immediately faces by-elections on July 28 and needs to prepare the party for the presidential and parliamentary races in 2012.
Ahn's predecessor, Chung Mong-joon, stepped down to take responsibility for the GNP's defeat in the June 2 local elections, which were seen as a mid-term referendum on the Lee administration.
The four others chosen as members of the five-member Party Supreme Council are Reps. Hong Joon-pyo, Na Kyung-won, Chung Doo-un and Suh
Byung-soo.
In the national convention held at an indoor stadium in southern Seoul, Ahn won 4,316 votes from GNP representatives and ordinary citizens, the
party announced.
Hong, a four-term lawmaker with the pro-Lee faction who worked as a prosecutor and the party's floor leader, came in second with 3,854 votes,
followed by Na with 2,881.
Chung, a two-term lawmaker who grabbed a united candidate ticket for reform-oriented candidates after beating rival lawmaker Nam Kyung-pil,
ranked fourth with 2,436 votes. Suh, a three-term lawmaker from a faction close to Park Geun-hye, a former chairwoman of the party and one of the
strongest potential candidates for the 2012 presidential election, won 1,924 votes to rank fifth.