Two woo Ahn supporters
Seen are posters to be used in the Dec. 19 election for the ruling Saenuri Party’s Park Geun-hye, left, and the Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in. / Korea Times, Yonhap
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Days after his unexpected withdrawal from the presidential race, Ahn Cheol-soo remains the center of attention.
The independent candidate drew roughly one third of supporters in any given opinion poll, so absorbing Ahn’s support base is emerging as a key necessity for the two remaining contenders to win the Dec. 19 election.
Ahn is set to make an announcement regarding his decision during a ceremony disbanding his campaign headquarters. The focal point lies on whether and how he will throw support behind Moon Jae-in, the presidential contender of the main opposition Democratic United Party. This is drawing keen attention as it will have a far-reaching impact upon the result of the presidential election.
Some supporters of Ahn, who now describe themselves as undecided voters after the software millionaire gave up his bid, have attracted attention from campaign strategists.
The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) geared up to unveil measures to woo this voter group, Monday.
Poll results released during the weekend showed that an average 55 percent of Ahn supporters said their newly preferred candidate was Moon, with 20 percent citing Park Geun-hye and the remaining 25 percent undecided.
This indicated that Moon failed to fully consolidate Ahn supporters as nearly 45 percent turned their back on him.
Park of the ruling Saenuri Party and Moon are in a tight race within the margin of error, those surveys found.
Despite the significance of the swing voters, Heo Jin-jae, a Gallup pollster, said it will not be an easy job for either Park or Moon to court them mainly because they are haters of old politics.
“These people backed Ahn because they liked him as a person. So I believe it will be very difficult for any candidates to woo the voters to their side,” he said.
Ahn supporters liked the novice politician because they were sick and tired of old politics and the way politicians do business. The software millionaire challenged this, calling for an overhaul of the way politics worked in the past.
The Saenuri Party said approximately 20 percent of former Ahn supporters who turned to Park are those in their 20s and 30s and residents of the greater Seoul area.
The Park camp has pledged to craft tailor-made campaign pledges to appeal to the remaining 25 percent of undecided voters.
Saenuri Party strategists plan to work on catchy livelihood pledges, such as education, childcare and social welfare programs that can interest the target voters.
Meanwhile, the vote split revealed in recent polls concerned the Moon camp.
Rep. Woo Sang-ho, chief DUP publicist, tried to find hope in the results showing that some 50 to 60 percent of respondents said they hope for a government change from the Saenuri Party to the DUP in the upcoming election.
Woo said the DUP would try to attract these concerned voters to vote for Moon.
The campaign landscape featuring an East-West voter divide is in the making after Ahn made a surprising announcement to drop out of the presidential race last week.
The eastern region is widely in favor of the ruling Saenuri Party, whereas the western part of the nation is described as the DUP’s home turf.