Three main opposition lawmakers Thursday bolted from the New Politics Alliance for Democracy following the defection of Rep. Ahn Cheonl-soo, who had left the party over a power struggle with the current party leader Rep. Moon Jae-in.

They were the first to follow behind Ahn in leaving the party after several other dissenters retracted their initial decisions to defect and decided to stay for the sake of an opposition victory in next year’s general elections.

Reps. Moon Byung-ho, Yoo Sung-yop, and Hwang Ju-hong -- who had warned of their defection since Ahn left the NPAD on Dec. 13 -- vowed to create a new opposition bloc with other dissenters who had already left the NPAD or are planning to quit the party.

“We are leaving the NPAD to walk the path of victory and reunite the opposition bloc,” Moon said in a news conference at the National Assembly. “We will gather forces from the people who agree with us and create a new political group to realign the opposition bloc,” said Moon.

But the prospects of their plan to rival the established parties remained to be seen as the majority of the NPAD dissenters, who have echoed the defectors’ criticism against the current NPAD leadership, were seen to be reluctant to follow their lead. 

Except for Rep. Kim Dong-cheol, who is reportedly considering leaving the party, there have been no other NPAD lawmakers inside or outside the mainstream suggesting they would quit the party in the foreseeable future. Even Rep. Song Ho-chang, who had worked for Ahn’s presidential campaign in 2012, has decided to stay.

As an opinion poll released by local pollster Realmeter showed Wednesday that the NPAD’s approval ratings were almost double that of Ahn’s prospective party, some dissenters cautioned that more defections would lead to a division of the opposition -- a scenario that has led to election defeats in the past.

“South Korea’s political structure is based on two major political parties whose support comes from regional divisions,” said Rep. Kim Boo-kyum, another NPAD dissenter who decided to remain at the party. “Third parties have always raised hopes for a new kind of politics, but they often gave up midway,” said Kim. 

For example, the divided opposition bloc suffered a crushing defeat in the 1996 general election as then-main opposition Democratic Party split into two opposition groups -- National Congress for New Politics and Unified Democratic Party.

Mindful of the scenario, the three defectors have yet to outline their next move -- whether they will join forces with Ahn or other NPAD defectors, such as Rep. Chung Jung-bae, who has recently created his own minor party, or Rep. Park Joo-sun, who on Thursday stressed the imperativeness of the dissenters forming a single opposition bloc.

Meanwhile, NPAD third-term lawmaker Rep. Choi Jae-sung announced Thursday that he would not run in the election. The move was considered to be in support of chairman Moon’s reform initiatives that he vowed to uphold in Wednesday’s press conference to keep the house in order.

Moon has said he would adopt a bottom-up approach for nominating candidates for the 2016 general elections amid calls for the established NPAD members to forgo their run to make way for fresh faces.

Moon had warned that NPAD lawmakers categorized in the bottom 20 percent in their job performance reviews would be deprived of the opportunity to stand for reelection. Among the dissenting lawmakers, Hwang and Yoo refused to undergo the review.

By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)