hankyoreh

Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party announces at an emergency press briefing on Sunday that he will no longer be pursuing efforts to merge campaigns with the People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeol. (pool photo)

Ahn Cheol-soo, the minor opposition People’s Party’s candidate for president, announced Sunday that he had retracted his proposal to unify his campaign with Yoon Suk-yeol, candidate for South Korea’s main opposition People Power Party (PPP).

“Starting now, I will go my own way,” Ahn said.

The possibility of Ahn and Yoon combining their campaigns had been regarded as a major variable as the presidential race enters its final stage. Now that Ahn has tentatively shut the door on that possibility, more turbulence is expected in the final 17 days before the election.

“I have watched and waited over the past week. It’s time to wrap up a period and a process that have proven meaningless,” Ahn said, announcing he’ll finish the race on his own, during an emergency press conference at the National Assembly Sunday.

In remarks aimed at Yoon, Ahn placed the entire blame on the PPP.

“I gave him plenty of time, one week out of the three weeks in the main campaign period. Let me be clear: the responsibility for not unifying our campaigns lies with the main opposition party and with Yoon,” he said.

“I’ve concluded that it’s pointless to wait any longer for a response [from Yoon],” said Ahn, who had proposed immediately after registering as a presidential candidate on Feb. 13 that they let the outcome of a “national primary” opinion poll decide which of the two would lead the ticket in a combined campaign.

Ahn explained during the press conference that his proposal had been “a desperate measure” aimed at subverting political pressure to trap him in the narrative of a combined campaign.

“I was trying to submit to the popular desire for us to join forces to push the current party out of power,” he said.

Ahn voiced feelings of betrayal for how Yoon and the PPP had reacted to his proposal.

“I didn’t get any kind of response from Yoon for a week after he received my proposal. If anything, various people from the main opposition party who claimed to be speaking for Yoon butted in to disparage and distort the sincerity of my proposal for a combined campaign.”

“They stooped to political profiteering by spreading rumors that I would accept the governorship of Gyeonggi Province in exchange for stepping down while my party was still mourning over the tragic accident that befell us. Through its fence-sitting and rumor-mongering over the past week, the main opposition party has adequately demonstrated its insincerity and unwillingness to combine our campaigns,” Ahn said.

Ahn was responding to “black propaganda” presumably spread by the PPP after Ahn halted his campaigning following the deaths of two campaign staffers in an accident on a campaign bus.

Ahn provided the following rationale for announcing the end of negotiations about unifying his and Yoon’s campaigns: “I think that continuing to wait [for a response from Yoon] would be an insult not only to myself but also to the party colleagues who care about me and to all of my supporters around the country. I was forced to bring an end to the insults and injuries.”

The declaration that Ahn will stay in the race is expected to foment divisions among conservatives and alter moderates’ voting preferences. With Yoon running neck and neck with Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-mung, both the Democratic Party and the PPP are likely to intensify last-minute efforts to recruit Ahn to their side.

Ahn may not have completely eliminated the possibility of teaming up with Yoon, some observers say.

“Ahn Cheol-soo has punted the ball to the PPP to create a pretext for running and to energize his campaign,” said Choi Chang-ryeol, professor of liberal arts at Yong In University, in an interview with the Hankyoreh.

“Given how close this race is, Yoon is likely to keep trying to somehow unify their campaigns. A merger will remain possible until the day before the election.”

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]