The Democratic United Party has tried to present itself as the commoners’ party in opposition to the ruling party, which it criticizes as representing only the upper echelon of society.

The strategy is reflected in the inclusion of the Citizen Camp in Moon Jae-in’s campaign machine.

The Citizen Camp, which makes up one third of Moon’s camp along with the party-centric group and expert advisers’ group, consists of a large number of figures from a range of fields including civic activism, academia, law, and medicine.

The camp is led by a number of high profile figures including Moon Sung-geun, an actor and an adviser to the DUP, and chief of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions Lee Yong-deuk. The camps leaders also include Moon Yong-sik, a former student activist who went onto found Nowcom, the company that operates the internet broadcasting service Africa.

These “ordinary citizens” are supported by a large number of mentors that have been drawn from all corners of society from arts to broadcasting and literature.

According to the DUP, the Citizen Camp is “conducting a new experiment never seen before in the history of party politics” to bring about change and innovation in the political arena.

Since the launch of the campaign, such sentiments have been repeated by Moon.

“Participation of the public is the only way to make the opening of a new age such as (that of) economic democratization and welfare state,” Moon has said in launching the Citizen Camp.

In addition, the incorporation of Citizen Camp into the official campaign machine has given Moon the advantage of having an extensive network of civic activists.

Just as late President Roh Moo-hyun’s campaign in 2002 received a huge boost from the supporter group Rohsamo, the Citizen Camp has rallied ordinary citizens to a cause Moon has been battling the Saenuri Party over.

The issue is that of extending the voting hours on Dec. 19.

While Moon and independent Ahn Cheol-soo have argued for extending the voting time at least until 8 p.m., the ruling party and its candidate Park Geun-hye have so far managed to keep the issue at bay.

On Oct. 31, Moon announced that he will accept Saenuri Party’s proposal to revise the Political Fund Act in return for extending the voting hours, as suggested by earlier by Park’s communications chief Lee Jung-hyun. The ruling party, however, took the position that Lee’s comments were personal opinion and that there was no precedent of parties “swapping” one regulation for another.

Having run into a roadblock, members of Moon’s Citizen Camp and its provincial chapters launched relay one-man protests demanding an extension of hours

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)