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Apr. 8. Seated on the left is NPAD co-leader Kim Han-gil. (by Lee Jeong-woo

By Lee You Ju-hyun, staff reporter

Ahn Cheol-soo, a longtime proponent of ending party nominations for local elections, took another gamble ahead of the June 4 local elections by calling for an opinion poll of party members and the public to decide a new platform on the issue for the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD).

This could be a step back for Ahn as the governing Saenuri Party (NFP) said a resounding “no” to the calls for an end to the nominations, while an intensifying debate within the NPAD prompted procedural action to find a way of resolving the situation.

Ahn held a press conference at the National Assembly on the morning of Apr. 8 to announce the proposal with fellow NPAD co-leader Kim Han-gil.

“No matter how important my own principles and convictions are to me, I do not think they can more important than the will of the public and the party’s members,” Ahn said at the press conference, adding that he planned to “ask the public and party members what they think about ending nominations for basic elections.”

The NPAD plans to administer a poll on Apr. 9 to 300,000 dues-paying party members and 2,000 adults around the country, with each group given equal weight in deciding whether to do away with nominations.

The previous day, Blue House senior secretary for political affairs Park Joon-woo roundly rejected Ahn’s proposal for talks with President Park Geun-hye. Ahn had attempted to pressure Park - at one point paying a personal visit to the Blue House to request a meeting - but to no avail.

Meanwhile, many within the NPAD said the time had come to put the debate to bed and go into full-scale election mode. Ahn, who pointed to the abolishment of party nominations for local elections as one of his key reasons for merging with the Democratic Party, has been insistent about keeping his promise. The decision to go through the new procedure of an opinion poll before going ahead without nominations was prompted by concerns that the situation needs to be cleared up somehow before it risks jeopardizing the party’s election chances.

It is still unclear how the opinion poll of party members and the public will turn out. So far, polls have indicated that the public is in favor of doing away with party nomination of candidates in local elections, while party members tend to prefer maintaining the system.

“It depends on how the poll questions are set up,” a key NPAD official said. Members of the party had mixed views, with some seeing Ahn’s decision as a way to reserve his position on the nomination system and others regarding it as a move to push through abolition of the system.

Whatever the results may be, Ahn’s decision is regarded as a crucial watershed in determining the structure of the local elections, which are only 56 days away. If the opinion polls come out in favor of maintaining the nomination system, the ruling and opposition parties could compete in the election under the same rules.

If, on the other hand, the NPAD decides to stop officially nominating candidates, the Saenuri Party will enjoy an advantage in bringing its organizational power to bear. At the same time, it is likely that the party would continue to be accused of causing an unfair election by breaking its promise to do away with the nomination system.

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