[Editorial] Strategy torn apart?

The presidential primaries of the main opposition party are running out of steam, dashing the party’s hopes of getting attention and praise from the electorate and deepening the schism between the frontrunner and the three other contenders. It looks as if the Democratic United Party was being torn apart in an undue power struggle in the midst of the primaries.

The turnout of registered voters is declining. The turnout in Ulsan peaked at 64.2 percent on Aug. 26, one day after the first primary on Jeju Island registered a 55.3 percent turnout. It has since dropped below the 50 percent mark. Moreover, the campaign to register voters for the open primaries is petering out, making the party’s goal of involving 2 million people in the vote nearly impossible.

The frontrunner Moon Jae-in and his opponents ― Sohn Hak-kyu, Kim Doo-kwan and Chung Sye-kyun ― agree that the primaries have so far failed to draw much attention from the electorate. But they are wide apart over what has gone wrong.

Moon accuses his rivals of failing to move on from what he called politics as usual at a time when the electorate is demanding a “revolutionary change” to the faction-driven, fragmented party politics. On the other hand, Moon’s opponents denounce him and the party leadership for colluding for his nomination. “Fair competition is over. So is the hoopla (that the party has wanted to get out of the primaries),” Chung says.

It looks as if mudslinging has been developing into a power struggle, with Moon’s opponents demanding that Rep. Lee Hae-chan, party chairman, and Rep. Park Jie-won, floor leader, resign from their posts, holding themselves accountable for the flop.

As the contestants are throwing the primaries into disarray, the party’s desire to put up its nominee in yet another primary against a formidable potential presidential candidate, Ahn Cheol-soo, is being dashed. According to news reports, Ahn, a faculty member of Seoul National University, is considering running in the December presidential election as an independent.

The party has no one but itself to blame for its election strategy being torn asunder. What healthy party would entertain the possibility of an outsider being selected as its standard-bearer? But the embarrassing reality is that the opposition party has little chance of winning the election if it goes it alone, given Moon’s dismal approval ratings.