It's not unified candidate

By Jung Min-ho

Ahn Cheol-soo’s tearful eyes and recent contradictory statements after dropping his presidential bid suggest that Moon Jae-in’s status as the remaining opposition candidate is more a by-product of an ongoing conflict between the two liberal politicians rather than a carefully deliberated choice of candidacy.

In his standing-down address, the former Seoul National University professor said, “As of today, Moon is the single candidate. Blame me for any disharmony in the process of merging the candidacies and please throw your support behind Moon,” at his camp’s headquarters on Friday.

But Ahn’s support for the Democratic United Party (DUP) candidate was put into question the following day amid reports that Ahn said he was deeply disappointed with Moon after their televised debate last Wednesday.

Apparently, Ahn’s recent contradictory statements left many of his supporters confused, because Saturday’s poll, jointly conducted by SBS and research firm TNS, indicates that only 52 percent of Ahn’s support was absorbed by Moon. In the survey, 43.4 percent of respondents said they would support Park, while 37.6 said they would vote for Moon.

Meanwhile, the Moon camp has been bombarded with criticism from the conservative party and the media that have been trying hard to oversell the impact of Ahn’s statement in an obvious attempt to alienate him from Moon.

According to poll data, it seems evident that Ahn could still hold decisive sway in the two-way contest between Moon Jae-in and Park Geun-hye. Without his proactive presence, the liberal politicians’ mutual goal of preventing the conservative candidate from becoming the next president seems highly unlikely.

However, the former presidential hopeful, who said he “would help Moon,” seems in a quandary about keeping his word for some reason, reinforcing speculation that the distance between the two liberal politicians is further than most people would like to believe.

Although Ahn’s considerable frustration from the grueling and often ill-tempered campaign against Moon for the unified candidacy is understandable, he needs to confirm why he decided to run for the 18th president of Korea at this point. If it really was about benefitting the nation’s prosperity, Ahn’s dream isn’t over yet. Rather, he is at a point of transition from which he can effect much change.

It wasn’t like this when Ahn withdrew from a bid to run for Seoul mayor last year to support Park Won-soon with a big smile. Ahn’s decision brought many changes to a situation that would have been so different without it. And he can apply the same logic to the upcoming presidential election.

Before he pulled out of the race, Ahn said he would “achieve the candidacy unification by any means possible.” Now is the time to make this right.