[Editorial] Early candidacy talks

Only a month is left until registration starts for presidential candidates. Park Geun-hye is set to register with the National Election Commission as the standard-bearer of the ruling Saenuri Party on Nov. 25 or 26.

However, it is not clear yet who will register as Park’s main adversary ― Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party, the popular, independent Ahn Cheol-soo, or both. Moon and Ahn, who have promised to make a deal on who of the two will represent the opposition, have yet to determine when to start the talks and under what conditions.

Moon is pushing for early negotiations. But Ahn, who is set to announce his election platform on Nov. 10, says it would not be too late if negotiations were concluded by the time registration started. In the meantime, he proposes that each of them fight for public support, which he believes should be the key determinant for the choice between the two, with their respective policy proposals.

Not many events will have as much impact on the upcoming election as the outcome of the Moon-Ahn talks, given opinion polls showing that either of the two running as a pan-opposition candidate could emerge as a candidate strong enough to beat Park.

A third candidate tends to be a spoiler. But that is not the case with Ahn. He has turned himself into a viable presidential candidate since he decided last month to run, continuing to maintain a high level of popularity among the electorate. In opinion polls, he has frequently had higher approval ratings than either Park or Moon.

Now the question is whether he will make it to the finish line, either as an independent or by winning the candidacy of the main opposition party under the terms to be set through negotiations with Moon. Or will he withdraw on his own to make way for Moon, as he did for Park Won-soon when the Seoul mayoral by-election was held last year?

But Ahn apparently wanted to drive it home to the electorate that he was far more serious this time when he said recently: “I have crossed the river and I have burned my bridges behind me.” By this, however, he did not mean to say that he was ruling out the possibility of negotiating his candidacy with Moon.

One of his aides now says Ahn will participate in the process of selecting a candidate from between him and Moon when the selection rules are set by what she called a public mandate. The aide has not elaborated on what she meant by a public manadate. Instead, she says Ahn is determined to win the candidacy through that process.

In recent years, there have been two cases of selecting one between two opposition candidates, allowing the stronger to win support from the weaker in negotiations.

In 1997, Kim Dae-jung persuaded Kim Jong-pil to drop out of the race in support of him. When he won the election, he selected him as his prime minister. But he failed to make good on his promise to push for constitutional revision in favor of the parliamentary system of governance with the prime minister being the first among equals.

The other case involved Roh Moo-hyun, who forged a partnership with Chung Mong-joon in 2002 only to see it crumble as Chung withdrew his support on the eve of the election. But a sympathy vote helped Roh win the election.

It may be more difficult for Moon and Ahn to hammer out similar terms of partnership as they maintain a rough parity in power, all things considered. But prolonged, heated negotiations between the two could undermine the presidential election process should it crowd out crucial electoral issues that need to be put under the scrutiny of the electorate. They include each candidate’s integrity, leadership and vision for the nation as well as their key policy positions.

As such, influential figures and organizations siding with the opposition will have to ratchet up their pressure on Moon and Ahn to agree on an early deadline by which to conclude their negotiations. One of the first things that need to be done in this regard is for the two sides to hammer out the framework of negotiations as soon as possible.