hankyoreh

Moon Kook-hyun, presidential candidate of the minor Create Korea Party, proposed yesterday to hold a one-on-one debate with his rival Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party, increasing the chance that the two liberal politicians could reach an agreement on fielding a single candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

Chung highly praised Moon’s proposal to hold a debate to determine who will be the most competitive in campaigning against the conservative, opposition Grand National Party’s Lee Myung-bak, who they claim is corruption-ridden.

Both know very well the consequences they will bear if they fail to field a single candidate and lose the December 19 election to the conservative party. This raises possibility that the two liberal politicians could make more progress than they did during similar talks on the single-candidate issue which were held last month.

Still, there is a long way to go. The first concern is the timetable proposed by Moon. He wants to make a final decision on who will represent the two parties in the election before December 16.

Chung told a press conference, “We don’t have enough time and people want a faster process for choosing a single candidate. We should meet the people’s demands.”

Indeed, if the deadline is set for December 16, absentee voters who are scheduled to cast their ballots on December 13-14 will not have the opportunity to choose who they really want to represent them. If and when a single candidate comes out of the two parties, absentee ballots for either candidate will not be counted.

Even if a public opinion poll is used to determine the candidate, it should be conducted before December 12 in order to announce the results in time for the absentee vote. “Even if we come out with a single candidate today, people will not immediately move to support someone whom they have not supported in the past. We should give voters enough time to make a choice,” Kim Hyun-mi, a spokesperson for Chung’s campaign, said.

Moon, however, is still perfectly in line with his earlier stance on the deadline, though he said that the process and method should be decided on by a civic panel consisting of people with political experience. The reason for this is that he needs time to rally support in advance of the second primary race.

Kim Kap-su, a spokesperson of Moon’s camp, said, “Chung wants to move forward now. But will fielding a single candidate lead to an immediate rise in the approval ratings? We will be able to enjoy synergy when both candidates can succeed in rallying support before the final decision is made.”

The dissonance in the two camps is expected to be relieved by a seven-person civic panel, which will spearhead the candidate selection process. The panel reportedly plans to launch joint campaigns in six major cities across the nation, hold one-on-one debates and conduct a series of public polls to help it make a final determination on the candidate selection process.

An official close to the panel said, on condition of anonymity, that it is likely they will ask Moon to move up the deadline.


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