hankyoreh

co-leader of Unified Progressive Party (UPP)

You have to hit rock bottom before you come back up. The opposition alliance for April’s election, which had faced a breakdown due to arguments over corruption in the process of primaries for single opposition candidates, found the foothold it needed to execute a dramatic turnaround on Friday afternoon, the last day of candidate registration. Unified Progressive Party (UPP) leader Lee Jung-hee, who had been set to run in Seoul's Gwanak B constituency, abandoned her candidate registration and chose not to run in the general election.Lee's decision saved the opposition alliance, which had been at risk of floundering.

Lee held a press conference at 3pm on Friday at the National Assembly and announced the withdrawal of her candidacy. Lee asked that full support be given to single opposition candidates across the country and said that unless a new government comes to power, neither democracy nor economic justice could be expected. She said, “The path of integration and solidarity that had been created through the efforts of many people over a long period of time was thrown into chaos by me.” She added that responsibility for throwing the morality of the progressive camp to the ground was clearly hers, and that it was right for her to take responsibility even if it meant self-destruction.

On the verge of tears, Lee said that she would give everything she had, from the lowest and hardest position, to ensure the victory of the opposition alliance. She then gave a deep bow. Previously, Lee had met Seoul National University professor and civil society activist Paik Nak-chung on Wednesday night and senior Democratic United Party

(DUP) advisor Moon Jae-in on Thursday night, both of whom advised her to resign. After much agonizing, she announced to her party her intention to resign at 2pm on Friday.

30 minutes later, in the National Assembly's DUP delegate room, DUP leader Han Myeong-sook and Ansan-Danwon-A candidate Baek Hye-ryeon held another press conference. Han commended Lee for having made a difficult decision and stated that, just as the ground got harder after the rain had stopped, the two parties would band together more firmly.

Baek, who had been objecting to the results of primary elections for single opposition candidates, said that the people were demanding that the opposition camp unite in order to pass judgment on the Lee Myung-bak government and the New Frontier Party, which had destroyed the working class economy and sent democracy into regression. She resigned, saying that she was leaving and taking all suspicions regarding the primary elections with her, for the sake of greater opposition unity.

At the press conference, Han made clear that she would recognize whoever was chosen to replace Lee Jung-hee as the single opposition candidate for her constituency. This constituted official confirmation that she would support Lee Sang-gyu, the UPP's new candidate for the position, rather than Kim Hui-cheol, who refused to yield to results of the primary and left the party to run as an independent.

On the same day that the problem in Gwanak was solved, UPP candidates in Seoul's Seongdong B, Dongdaemun A and Incheon Yeonsu held successive press conferences and stated that they would help DUP candidates. Meanwhile, DUP candidates that had been raising doubts over primary results in Seoul's Eunpyeong B (Cheon Ho-seun) and Nowon C (No Hoe-chan) and Gyeonggi-do's Goyang Deogyang A (Sim Sang-jeong), confirmed their decisions not to run. Effectively, the opposition alliance was completed nationwide.

The question that remains is whether the opposition alliance for the election) will attract votes. Lawyer Baek Seung-heon, a lawyer with the Roundtable for Victory in 2012 and Hope in 2013, said he thought a process of healing the officials and supporters within each party that had been hurt in the process of joint election campaign, and that the alliance had to establish a permanent body for realizing the shared values of progressive reformists, since this was the reason it had been formed.

Predictions differ regarding Lee Jung-hee's political future. While some within the UPP are objecting to her decision to resign, the strongly prevalent assessment on the outside is a positive one, which holds that the resignation has offered her a chance to be reborn as a politician willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of the greater cause.

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