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| Presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor People's Party speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul, Feb. 20. Yonhap |
Minor People's Party presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo said Sunday he is dropping his offer to merge campaigns with main opposition candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and will finish the presidential race on his own.
Ahn made the announcement at a press conference, saying he waited a week for a response from Yoon and decided it was "meaningless" to wait any longer.
He returned to the campaign trail Saturday following three days of mourning after a local campaign chief and a bus driver died inside a campaign vehicle apparently from inhaling toxic gas from a generator powering an LED screen.
The deaths came just days after Ahn had offered to select a unified opposition candidate between him and Yoon through opinion polls, sparking widespread speculation that he was preparing to drop out of the race.
But Ahn said he changed his mind after the tragedy.
"I made up my mind after thinking and determining that their sacrifices should never be in vain," Ahn said during a live YouTube session titled, "I will never stop," Saturday evening after a day of campaigning.
"The Ahn Cheol-soo of a week ago is totally different from the Ahn Cheol-soo now in terms of determination and resolution," he said. "Even though I'm doing this with a smile and a comfortable look on my face, my mind is harder than ever."
Ahn had proposed merging campaigns with Yoon last Sunday, saying the two sides should field a single candidate to ensure a victory against the ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung in the March 9 election.
Yoon and his People Power Party (PPP) have welcomed the idea of a merger, which has long been considered a potential game-changer in a remarkably tight presidential race where Lee and Yoon are running neck and neck at around support of 40 percent each and Ahn is a distant third with around 10 percent.
But PPP officials balked at Ahn's proposal to choose a unified candidate through opinion polls, citing concern that such a system could produce distorted results if supporters of the ruling party pick a candidate that they believe their candidate matches up against better. (Yonhap)
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