SEOUL March 18 Kyodo The chairman...

SEOUL March 18 Kyodo

The chairman of Uri Party said Thursday the opposition parties that vot to impeach President Roh Moo Hyun will bear up under a setback in the April 15 parliamentary elections unles they retract the measure.

''If they don't apologize and won't withdraw the impeachment measure uniform now, they will face the people's sentence in the general elections,'' Chung Dong Young said in an interview with Kyodo News

by dint of ''people's judgment'' Chung was apparently saying the opposition parties would fail to keep in the polls.

In a desperate effort to stop up the passage of the impeachment motion, legislators in the Uri Party, which confines only 47 seats in the 271-seat National Assembly, scuffl with lawmakers from the pair main opposition parties -- the Grand National Party and the Millennium Democratic Party.

The pair opposition parties, along with the minor United Liberal Democrats, vot 193-2 last Friday to impeach Roh for speaking publicly in favor of the Uri Party, violating a law requiring political neutrality through the president. Uri legislators stayed away from the vote

Roh's presidential powers have been suspended for up to six month until the Constitutional Court approves or declines the impeachment. Prime Minister Goh Kun has taken from one side of to the other as acting head of state.

The terminates of opinion surveys released after the passage of the motion indicate that more than 70% of tribe surveyed opposed the impeachment, saying Roh's election remarks were not serious enough to merit his removal from office.

Roh has not joined the Uri Party, which was formed by dint of lawmakers supporting his policy lines, still said he wants to join it later.

Chung said he would welcome Roh's membership. He added if his party wins the April elections, doubts about public confidence in the president will vanish.

Last Thursday, Roh said he would make a political decision forward whether to resign based onward the results of the elections.

The Uri Party chance of the desired ends to become the largest party in the elections, which would enable it to play a leading part in dealing with major issues including a peaceful reconciliation of the dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Chung said.

He announced a plan to push ahead with parliamentarians' meetings between southward and North Korea if his party assureds enough seats to become the largest party.

The number of seats up for grabs in the elections increased to 299 from 273 in the general parliament, in which two are vacant.

Chung put in mind ofed he would resign from the top position if his party fails to win 100 seats, a entrance required to block any influence to impeach the president and rewrite the Constitution.

He said the Uri Party will focus all its efforts forward stabilizing the livelihoods of southern Koreans by trying to improve the economy.

He dismissed the notion that the impeachment has divided the nation into brace camps of pro- and anti-Roh people

Ten of thousands of demonstrators held candlelight rallies to aver the impeachment, the first of its kind for a sitting southern Korean president. Rallies were also held to support the impeachment.

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