The stalled process of selecting a single candidate for the progressive bloc was jump started on Sunday following the en-masse resignation of the Democratic United Party’s leadership and Moon Jae-in’s decision to follow the candidate selection method chosen by Ahn Cheol-soo.
On Sunday DUP chairman Lee Hae-chan and the entire supreme council announced that they would step down in an effort to bring Ahn back to the table.
“History and the era urgently call for administration change. As such, I put down the heavy and proud responsibilities of party chairman and of the supreme council member, because our position must not provide the excuse to avoid or delay the unification,” Lee said in a press conference. Floor leader Rep. Park Jie-won, meanwhile, decided to stay on until the end of the year to take care of parliamentary agendas.
Hard on the heels of the DUP leaders’ announcement, Moon said that he would follow whatever method independent candidate Ahn chose, saying that time was running out.
“I call for the discussions about the unification method with Ahn’s side to be swiftly resumed. There is no time,” Moon said.
“Whether it is opinion polls, or opinion polls plus alpha, I will leave the decision to be made by Ahn’s side.”
On Nov. 14, Ahn’s negotiators suspended the talks over the method the two sides will use to select the unified candidate citing unfair play from the DUP and Moon’s camp.
When the talks over the candidate selection method was halted, the two sides were said to have had been on the verge of completing the political reform declaration, the completion of which was set as a precondition for the merger of the two camps when the plans were announced on Nov. 6
Ahn’s campaign aides had claimed that DUP officials were engaging in unfair manipulation of the media by feeding false information to journalists and personal attacks on Ahn’s negotiators.
Moon added that the details can be worked out by the negotiation team, and expressed hopes for making the joint political reform declaration with the restart of the talks over the unification method.
Moon’s side with its extensive party network had favored primaries, while Ahn’s side is said to prefer opinion polls for choosing between the two candidates to represent the progressive bloc in the Dec. 19 presidential election.
The latest developments appear to have appeased Ahn, who appeared to be unmoved by repeated apologies from Moon and his campaign aides.
“As soon as I am back in Seoul I will meet with Moon and discuss the issue personally without delegating to working-level officials,” Ahn said at a press conference in Gwangju.
“I will put everything on the line and resolve this issue soon.”
Regarding the resignation of senior DUP lawmakers, Ahn did express “sincere respect” to Lee and other politicians without openly welcoming the development saying that he was calling on the DUP to put a stop to “political customs” rather than for a change of personnel.
By Choi He-suk
(cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)
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