Former Prime Minister and acting President Han Duck-soo on Saturday registered as the People Power Party's candidate for the June 3 presidential election, following the party leadership’s decision to revoke ex-Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo’s nomination.
The People Power Party announced around 5:50 a.m. that Han was the only person who registered during the party's candidate registration process, which was open from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. The party’s new presidential candidate will be officially announced during a national committee meeting scheduled for Sunday.
At 3 a.m., Han announced that he has joined the ruling conservative party while highlighting his goal of helping South Korea “move forward.”
“I only have one goal – it’s to prevent the miracle that’s happening from ending and to help South Korea continuously move forward. I believe that is the will of the people and the will of my fellow party members,” he added.
Ahead of Han’s announcement, the party’s leadership decided to “cancel the nomination” of Kim following a meeting of the election management committee and emergency committee.
Kim warned to take legal actions against the party's moves as the meeting of the election management committee and emergency committee convened.
The ruling party’s unprecedented move came amid a growing rift within the conservative bloc over the candidacy merger scenario between Kim and Han.
The party leadership had pressured Kim to swiftly unify his candidacy with Han by Sunday, which is the deadline for candidate registration with the National Election Commission. Kim, who officially won the People Power Party’s primary race last week refused to heed to the party’s request, denouncing it as an “illegal” plan to replace him with Han as candidate.
Han, who was more popular in various opinion polls, compared to Kim, had insisted the merger to be finalized by Sunday. He pointed to the need to better counter Democratic Party of Korea candidate Lee Jae-myung, who has led several opinion polls, without dividing the conservative votes.
The party’s decision to cancel Kim’s nomination came hours after Kim and Han held their third meeting over the issue of candidacy merger. The meeting collapsed in less than 30 minutes after it kicked off at 8:30 p.m. at the National Assembly. The previous two meetings also ended without agreements.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
