Moon, Ahn differ on details
By Lee Tae-hoon
Are they friends or foes?
Rivalry between Rep. Moon Jae-in, presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) and independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo is intensifying as the Nov. 26 candidate registration deadline draws near.
Aides to Moon expressed their frustration Friday over Ahn’s laid-back attitude toward forming a single candidacy and his continued avoidance of setting out plans for candidate selection.
Moon reiterated his position that the unified candidate should be selected in a primary or another process involving participation from the general public, rather than entirely relying on the results of a popularity opinion poll.
Nevertheless, the 59 year-old lawyer-turned-politician cannot afford to upset Ahn, who keeps stressing the need to chart out a plan to revamp “outdated politics” prior to further talks.
Ahn’s possible withdrawal from a merger deal would split the liberal vote and pave the way for the ruling Saenuri Party candidate Park Geun-hye to win the presidency.
As tensions grow between the two camps, Rep. Woo Sang-ho, Moon’s spokesman, even raised the suspicion that Ahn might be intentionally delaying the announcement of a joint statement on “new politics,” a precondition for candidacy merger.
“The two sides must conclude talks on the text of their joint declaration by Saturday at the latest,” he said
“If the talks make slow progress, people will harbor suspicions that someone is intentionally holding it off to discuss the details of procedures and methods of selecting a single candidate.”
Moon and Ahn agreed Tuesday to discuss details of forming a merger after making a joint declaration.
Party officials suspect that Ahn is reluctant to begin negotiations with Moon over the methods of selecting a unified candidate because the 50-year-old software mogul-turned politician favors opinion surveys.
Moon, who is running in the presidential race on the DUP’s ticket, has a strong chance of defeating Ahn should the two agree to hold a primary because he can woo voters with the help of his party’s manpower and networks.
Rep. Jin Sung-joon, another spokesman for Moon, also urged the Ahn camp to conclude talks on the joint statement as early as possible, stressing that “time is running out.”
“There isn’t enough time to map out plans on how to select a single candidate,” he said.
Moon and Ahn plan to field a single liberal candidate before the Nov. 26 candidate registration deadline.
Representatives from the two camps started negotiating details of the joint statement, which will serve as policy guidelines for the liberal candidate who wins concession from another to run in the Dec. 19 presidential election.