Candidates head into final stretch

In the left photo, Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, is welcomed by participants at a conference about Korean pop culture in southern Seoul, Thursday. In the right photo, Ahn Cheol-soo, the candidate of the People's Party, greets a child while campaigning in Hahoe Folk Village in North Gyeongsang Province the same day. / Yonhap

By Kim Hyo-jin

With their voices becoming huskier and pain growing in their hands from all the handshaking with voters, presidential candidates are moving briskly from here to there campaigning nationwide, Thursday.

As the campaign is heading into the final stretch to the May 9 election, their appeal for votes and negative campaigning against rival candidates has become stronger.

Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party started canvassing voters door-to-door without the use of his official car, an unusual move on the campaign trail.

He met Daegu citizens, walking around the city for seven straight hours with his guards several meters away distance. Such ways of canvassing will continue until the last day of the campaign, May 8, according to his campaign team.

In a bid to turn around conservative voters whose support has been shifted to Hong Joon-pyo of the rightist Liberty Korea Party (LKP) in recent polls, Ahn focused on campaigning in Gyeongsang Provinces, traditional home ground for the conservative bloc. He visited Haein Temple in Hapcheon and moved to Andong, then Gumi.

Targeting candidates in the leading group in polls, Ahn said voters should avoid voting for the establishment.

"To defeat Moon Jae-in, I'm the only competent candidate. Hong is not even qualified to be a presidential candidate," he wrote on a Facebook post. "If you hope to create hope for the conservatives, vote for Yoo Seong-min. And if you hope to give more power to the liberals, vote for Sim Sang-jung."

Ahn added, if elected, he will join hands with Yoo of the Bareun Party and Sim of the Justice Party in running the administration.

He has laid out his vision to launch a coalition government with reformative figures regardless of their political lines, but it was the first time that he mentioned that minor contenders are included in his plan.

Hong, who has recently emerged as a strong contender to Ahn, also canvassed in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, a move to boost further support from conservative voters.

His party has a positive outlook for the election, given his popularity has sharply risen in the last few weeks. The party's think thank earlier said, according to an internal survey, Hong already overtook Ahn and is hot on trail of Moon.

Hong then moved to Chungcheong Province, the crucial swing vote area, in the afternoon, and then to Gangwon Province, another conservative-leaning region.

The choice of the itinerary is viewed as his focus on prospective supporters. His campaign has framed the election as a competition between the leftists and the rightists, fanning concerns among traditional conservative supporters about losing the government to the rival force.

In an apparent move to court supporters of former President Park Geun-hye, Hong said he will reinstate pro-Park lawmakers whose party memberships were suspended following the presidential corruption scandal.

"Our priority should be deterring the launch of a pro-North Korea government. Those aligned with Park and those who are not should work together for the presidential election," he told citizens.

Moon, the candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, met with entertainers and officials in the music and drama industry and held a roundtable discussions on ways to revive the so-called Korean wave that has been halted in China by a row between Seoul and Beijing over the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery.

Yoo also stayed in Seoul and canvassed in the university areas starting from Ewha Womans University to Hanyang and Hongik Universities. He targeted a receptive audience for change among young voters, according to his campaign team.

Meanwhile, Sim attended a roundtable session arranged to discuss the future of the Korea-U.S. alliance with foreign policy experts.

She said the need to reset the alliance is ever higher now that both governments are poles apart over the cost of the U.S. missile defense system operating here, claiming the ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty be revised. "I call for a democratic alliance with the U.S. by redefining its goal and means," she said.

After meeting Jeju citizens in the afternoon, she moved to Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, and consoled the bereaved families of those killed by a crane that collapsed at a Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard.

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