Ahn to stay in race as opposition fails to find common candidate

Politics

Published: 20 Feb. 2022, 18:46 Updated: 20 Feb. 2022, 19:06

Ahn to stay in race as opposition fails to find common candidate

Ahn Cheol-soo, presidential candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, declares he will not join forces with Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party at a press conference at the National Assembly on Sunday afternoon. [YONHAP]

The minor opposition People's Party's presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo declared Sunday that he would remain in the race for the Blue House, ruling out the possibility of joining forces with the campaign of the main opposition People Power Party's (PPP) contender Yoon Suk-yeol.

The announcement from Ahn, delivered at a press conference at the National Assembly in the afternoon, put an end to weeks of speculation that he would bow out of the presidential election to prevent a two-way split of the opposition vote between himself and Yoon.

As polling through the winter had shown Ahn enjoying between 6 and 10 percent support, compared to Yoon’s 40 percent, talks between the two opposition campaigns in recent weeks focused on whether one of the contenders should drop out of the election altogether to lend their support to the other — and how to determine who would remain in the race.

Ahn had proposed on Feb. 13 that a mobile phone survey — the same method used to determine the opposition’s unified candidate in the Seoul mayoral by-election in April, when Ahn dropped out in favor of the eventual winner Oh Se-hoon — should serve a referendum to determine the general public’s pick for the opposition’s unified presidential candidate.

However, that proposal received only a lukewarm reception from Yoon, who said that he would take some time “to think about it” but that it was “disappointing in certain aspects,” which was widely interpreted as referring to the phone survey method.

PPP spokesman Lee Yang-soo said that while the party “positively views” Ahn’s idea of presenting a unified opposition candidate, he also appeared to call on Ahn to simply drop out of the race in favor of Yoon, saying, “We look forward to a courageous decision from Ahn to unify the opposition by respecting the public's desire for a change of government.”

Although the two candidates engaged in a barely concealed struggle of wills over who should be the flag-bearer for the opposition, Ahn’s announcement on Sunday appeared to draw a line under the PPP’s strong hints that he should be the one to abandon the race.

Echoing Yoon’s language before he joined the PPP, when the former prosecutor general resisted media and public pressure to openly sign onto a political party, Ahn declared at Sunday’s press conference that he would “walk [his] own path,” and placed the blame on the opposition’s failure to field a single candidate on the PPP and its contender.

“I have given Yoon more than enough time [to respond to my proposal],” Ahn said. “I make it clear now that the responsibility for the opposition’s failure to field a unified candidate lies solely with the main opposition party and with Yoon.”

Ahn also criticized Yoon for not accepting his proposal for a phone survey to decide which of them would continue running, after the PPP had previously accepted the same method to decide on the opposition contender in the mayoral by-election.

“I didn’t suggest my own method [to decide who should be the unified opposition’s candidate],” Ahn said of his proposal. “I proposed a method used all along by the PPP, but Yoon didn't give a serious response to this suggestion.”

Yoon Suk-yeol greets supporters at a campaign rally in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on Saturday evening. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

While Yoon leads Ahn by a long shot in surveys that ask who they prefer among four presidential candidates — Yoon, Lee, Ahn and Sim Sang-jung of the minor progressive Justice Party — recent surveys show that in hypothetical races where only one of the two is running as the opposition candidate, Ahn enjoys higher overall support.

According to a survey conducted on 1,007 adults by Gallup Korea on Feb. 7 and 8, 50.6 percent of those questioned preferred Ahn to Yoon as the unified opposition candidate.

The ruling Democratic Party's candidate Lee Jae-myung campaigns while wearing a Taekwondo uniform in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Sunday. [YONHAP]

Hypothetical scenarios where one of the two had dropped out show Ahn would also be more competitive than Yoon against Lee, with Ahn garnering 45.6 percent support as the unified opposition candidate against 35.9 percent for Lee, compared to 44.8 percent support for Yoon against 39.5 percent support for Lee if Ahn dropped out.

With Ahn now declaring he will campaign to the end, a split in the opposition vote appears all but certain.

However, even with the People’s Party candidate remaining in the race, Yoon leads all other contenders by a comfortable margin, a little more than two weeks before the polls open.

According to a survey of 1,007 adults by Gallup Korea between Feb. 15 and 17, Yoon enjoys 41 percent support, compared to 34 percent for Lee and 11 percent for Ahn, with Sim polling 4 percent.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]