S.Korea's Lee wins MP majority, faces party fight

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's new president won the parliamentary majority he needs to push through promised major economic reforms but bitter squabbling in his conservative camp could limit that agenda, experts said on Thursday.

The conservative Grand National Party won 153 seats in Wednesday's vote for the 299-seat National Assembly, short of the commanding lead President Lee Myung-bak might have hoped for after he took office in February, intent on radical change to Asia's fourth-largest economy.

"For the time being, we will be seeing a power struggle between the conservative forces," said Lee Nam-young, a political science professor at Sejong University

President Lee began his five-year term in February pledging to boost growth this year to 6 percent from 5 percent last year, end regulation he said stifled business and open the export-driven economy more to foreign investment.

Conservative stalwarts, unhappy with the way Lee had treated them, led a rebellion in the GNP ahead of the vote. They won 32 seats under the banner of other right-leaning parties.

Local media calculated that Lee's main opponent for the last year's GNP presidential nomination, Park Geun-hye, will have more than 50 allies in the rebel and GNP camps when the new parliament sits at the end of May for a four-year term.

Local newspapers said Lee, who saw several of his closest aides defeated in an election with the lowest voter turnout in the country's history, may have to cut back on more ambitious plans, such as a cross-country canal, because he does not have enough political capital to force them through.

STINGING DEFEAT