Ahn pays price to stand on own feet

People's Party presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo stands next to a monument during his visit to the Ahn Jung-geun Memorial Hall in central Seoul, Sunday. Courtesy of People's Party

Despite falling support, centrist party candidate isn't backing down

By Nam Hyun-woo

People's Party presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo appears to be headed down a difficult path for the remainder of his election campaign, as his influence as the No. 3 candidate is waning after he withdrew his proposal to form a single candidacy with main opposition People Power Party (PPP) candidate Yoon Suk-yeol.

Ahn's main problems are threefold. Recent polls found that his support rates are falling from double digits to single digits, while calamities have been hitting his campaign one after another. His wife was hospitalized after getting infected with the coronavirus and two of his party's campaign workers died in a tragic accident.

On Monday, the People's Party and PPP played the blame game.

People's Party campaign chief Rep. Lee Tae-kyu said that the PPP is not "sincere in its proposal for the coalition," and that its members had been spreading rumors that Ahn would drop his candidacy or give up campaigning.

"If the PPP thought the talks for a single candidacy would unfold positively after everything that has happened, the party is either ignorant of the reality or arrogant," Lee said. "The PPP's comment that it didn't expect that the talks would break down is complete nonsense."

Lee's comment came a day after Ahn withdrew his proposal to field a unified candidate with Yoon. Ahn said during a press conference that he had given Yoon a week to ponder his proposal, but that the main opposition candidate did not respond to him at all, ignoring his request.

After Ahn's announcement, PPP campaign spokesman Lee Yang-soo said, "Everyone found the announcement odd, because Yoon called Ahn on Sunday morning and asked for a meeting between the candidates, and Ahn replied that they should meet through working-level aides."

The People's Party denied PPP spokesman Lee's comment that Ahn had told Yoon that they were "supposed to meet after working-level talks," and said that Ahn's remarks mean that "they were supposed to have a working-level meeting in the past but it is too late."

The debate over their coalition had been the subject of a heated debate after Yoon's support rate tumbled in December amid the PPP's factional infighting and other scandals.

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However, the party seems to no longer see a single candidacy as an attractive option anymore, as recent surveys show that the gap is widening between Yoon and the No. 2 candidate, Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). In seven out of five surveys released on Sunday or Monday, Yoon was ahead of the DPK's Lee outside each survey's margin of error.

While the People's Party is saying that Ahn has decided to give up on forming a coalition with Yoon and would finish the election on his own, some are speculating about Ahn's abrupt decision to give up on the coalition talks.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the PPP and People's Party had been negotiating a plan for Yoon becoming the unified presidential candidate and Ahn taking the prime minister post if Yoon wins the election, citing anonymous sources. It continued that Ahn's wife, Kim Mi-kyung, played a key role in persuading him to finish the race without forming a coalition.

Banners for People's Party presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, top, and main opposition People Power Party candidate Yoon Suk-yeol hang on a street in Gangdong District, Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap

Following the breakdown of the talks, Ahn is anticipated to face challenges ahead in the remaining presidential race, mainly because his support rate is faltering compared to when the discussion about merging the two campaigns was at its peak.

According to a survey by Hankook Research released on Sunday, Ahn's support rate stood at 7.1 percent, down from 9 percent tallied by the same agency from Dec. 29 to 30. During the same period, the rate for the DPK candidate grew from 34.3 percent to 36.9 percent and that of Yoon showed a noticeable surge from 28.7 percent to 42.4 percent.

At the same time, the percentage of respondents who said they do not support a particular candidate declined from 14.9 percent to 5.8 percent, showing that tactical voters are now flocking to the top two candidates who have higher chances of victory as the election nears.

Amid Ahn's gloomy outlook, the DPK is indirectly offering its hand to the centrist candidate.

The DPK's Lee wrote on Facebook that he "empathizes with Ahn's agony to bring an end to conventional politics and passion for a change in Korea's politics," and DPK campaign chief Woo Sang-ho said in a radio interview that "if we can do something with Ahn's side, the entire election dynamics will be more advantageous for the DPK."

However, the People's Party responded negatively, apparently because going back and forth between the conservative and liberal blocs would detract from the party's and Ahn's political identities.

People's Party floor leader Rep. Kwon Eun-hee said in a radio interview that the DPK's offer also "does not seem sincere."

The Hankook Research poll was requested by Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, and surveyed 1,000 adults on Feb. 18 and 19. Further details are available on the websites of the polling agency and the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.