hankyoreh

(from left to right) Ahn Cheol-soo

By Shin Seung-keun, staff reporter

The New Frontier Party (NFP) is seeking solutions to a potential deal by Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo to float a single opposition presidential candidate.

The topic has become something a black hole, sucking attention away from other political issues. Not only is it pulling the spotlight from NFP candidate Park Geun-hye, but if a deal to avoid splitting the opposition vote does come to pass, the looming possibility of a defeat for her cannot be ruled out.

Now the party is hard at work lambasting the move as a “political ploy” and “dirty politicking.”

Lee Jung-hyun, head of the NFP campaign’s PR office, said on Oct. 29 that the deal was a “game strategy where the second- and third-place finishers team up to beat the first-place finisher.”

“They’ve agreed to divide up the positions if they come to power,” he added.

Lee also said a deal would be “a far cry from any kind of political reform or the current zeitgeist. You can’t see it as anything but a grab for the administration without any thought for the people or the state.”

Kim Moo-sung, head of the election headquarters, blasted Moon, the Democratic United Party candidate, as “second banana for the failed Roh Moo-hyun administration,” and Ahn, an independent, as an “unreliable candidate whose governance abilities have never been tested.”

Kim blasted the idea of a single opposition candidate as a, “collaboration between two poor candidates who lack qualifications and capability.”

Key party figures also sounded the alarm on the possibility of Moon and Ahn organizing a coalition government with enhanced powers for the prime minister. In particular, they worried that Ahn, who is the subject of close scrutiny over the questionable purchase of one of his apartments, would not have to go through a National Assembly hearing under such a system.

The reason the NFP has gone into attack mode is because it is aware of how devastating a deal could be to Park’s chances. A key member of the NFP election committee noted that her current support ratings are in the low- to mid-40 percent range, while Moon and Ahn have a combined support level over 50%.

“There’s not much Park Geun-hye can do if they make a deal,” the committee member said.

A lawmaker on the NFP’s special committee on political reform said action was urgently needed. “If they do make a deal, the result could be a huge jump in voting by younger people and a loss for Park Geun-hye,” the lawmaker said.

But a clear solution has yet to emerge, and party members are giving conflicting ideas for a response. Key figures in the Park wing, the party’s mainstream, said the candidate needs to set herself apart from the others with her policies and “soft leadership.”

“Instead of using political strategy, Park can win by presenting herself as the country’s first female president with a focus on the people’s economy and soft leadership,” said a key figure in charge of strategy for the candidate’s camp.

Many within the party are calling for stronger measures, including efforts to contrast the candidate with current President Lee Myung-bak, as well as calls for amendment of the Constitution.

Noting that various opinion polls have shown a strong desire within the electorate for a new administration, a close associate of Park’s said, “We have to give people the sense that a Park administration would be a new administration.” The idea is to play up Park’s role as a countervailing force within Lee’s own GNP (the NFP’s previous incarnation), as seen with her successful effort to block his planned scrapping of the Sejong administrative city plan.

Members of the special political reform committee also said the candidate should come out publicly in favor of a Constitutional amendment to decentralize executive power, an approach that could succeed in overshadowing an opposition candidacy deal.

Arguing that Park is currently “defenseless” against such a deal, a committee member said, “The only viable option is to shake up the election with calls for amending the Constitution to decentralize executive power.”

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