Kim Moon-soo suspends campaign in apparent protest against PPP leadership's pressure on his consent to unified candidacy
The plan to unify the candidacies of conservative People Power Party presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo and former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo faces a rocky road, with signs of discord observed between ruling party leadership and the ex-labor minister over the details of the potential merger.
The ruling party leadership and several heavyweights, in recent days, have pressured Kim to swiftly unify his candidacy with that of Han, who resigned as acting president and prime minister last week to declare his presidential bid. They even requested that Kim finalize the merger with Han by May 11, which is the deadline for candidate registration with the National Election Commission.
Although the party has refrained from revealing who will step down in the event of a merger, recent polls indicate that Han is leading in a scenario in which he becomes a conservative candidate.
A Realmeter poll conducted from April 30 to May 2 found Lee leading with 46.5 percent in a three-way hypothetical race against independent Han Duck-soo (34.3 percent) and Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party (5.9 percent). In a scenario with Kim Moon-soo replacing Han, Lee still led at 46.6 percent, with Kim at 27.8 percent and Lee Jun-seok at 7.5 percent.
Though Kim and members of the People Power Party leadership — floor leader Kweon Seong-dong and interim leader Kwon Young-se — met to address gaps in their stances towards the merger scenario late Monday, the two sides failed to reach an agreement on several key details, including the timing of the merger. Tensions remained unresolved as of Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Kim, who clinched the ruling party’s presidential nomination on Saturday, decided to suspend all his activities as the party's presidential candidate on Tuesday in an apparent sign of protest against pressure put on him.
“The party’s leadership is forcefully dragging me down, (despite my being) a legitimate presidential candidate — I will halt (all) my activities as an election candidate starting now,” Kim told reporters in a surprise announcement, after visiting the upcoming APEC summit site in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.
Kim accused the party of “refusing” to support him as a presidential candidate and the leadership of making “unilateral” decisions in regards to the potential merger, while excluding his opinions in the process.
In a statement released earlier in the day, Kim expressed regret over the outcome of Monday’s meeting, claiming that People Power Party leadership continues to undermine his opinions in the pursuit of the candidacy merger.
“Yesterday, at 8 p.m., I met with (members of the leadership), including interim leader Kwon Young-se and floor leader Kweon Seong-dong, to request the party’s cooperation in the pursuit of the candidacy unification and support of the party candidate,” Kim said in the same statement, while referring to himself as the party candidate.
“But the party has yet to cooperate on the formation of the election management committee and the nomination of the related roles needed to smoothly pursue candidate unification. Furthermore, they have unilaterally formed the committee for the candidacy unification, despite the fact that the candidate has the right to lead such a task,” he explained.
People Power Party interim leader Kwon shot back at Kim, saying that the ex-labor minister would be “betraying the people if he breaks his promise to unify his candidacy” with Han, during a general meeting of party lawmakers held in the afternoon. He added that he would step down as interim leader if the merger fails.
Han, who is currently an independent candidate, expressed support for the People Power Party leadership’s merger plan on Tuesday. “Failure to unify the candidates would be a major betrayal of the people,” he said during a morning debate session hosted by the Kwanhun Club, a senior press association.
Aligned with the ruling party leadership’s views, Lee Jung-hyun, the current spokesperson for Han’s election campaign, highlighted the need to conclude the merger by May 11.
“Concluding the candidacy unification by May 11 is the move that would meet the expectations of the people and hopes of the members of the People Power Party,” Lee said in a Tuesday press briefing.
The rift between Kim and the party leadership comes amid growing speculations that Kim may have to throw in the towel, despite having won the primary, to pave the way for Han to claim the role of the conservative bloc’s main presidential candidate.
“We must pursue a candidacy unification centered around candidate Kim, which is justified and legitimate, despite the merger’s goal of having to counter (Democratic Party of Korea) candidate Lee Jae-myung,” Choi In-ho, deputy spokesperson for Kim’s election campaign, said in a Monday Facebook post.
The talks of a unified candidacy between Kim and Han have been raised as a way to counter Democratic Party contender Lee, who has led several polls as voters’ favorite candidate.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
