Moon, Ahn begin crucial tug of war
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2 candidates agree on TV debate
By Kim Tong-hyung
Opposition presidential candidate Moon Jae-in and independent rival Ahn Cheol-soo agreed Tuesday to hold a TV debate as part of efforts to unify their candidacies ahead of the Dec. 19 election.
The agreement is, however, not guaranteed to resolve their differences on the way to choose one between the two and have him represent Moon’s Democratic United Party (DUP) and Ahn’s supporters.
Still, it was enough to put pressure on the ruling Saenuri Party and its candidate Park Geun-hye, who opinion polls show is behind either of the two if they run as single opposition candidates.
Park’s reluctance to hold TV debates has now been made less tenable.
After a much-anticipated meeting that continued for hours, representatives of both camps also decided to hold meetings every morning until the process of establishing a single opposition candidate is completed.
Moon and Ahn have yet to narrow their differences over the method to pick the unified presidential candidate, although they have until Nov. 26, the last day for candidate registration.
The two liberals are expected to address voters in a joint statement this evening. The Saenuri Party has been taking the offensive to the efforts by Moon and Ahn to form a unified front, threatening to hit them with charges of selling and buying the candidacy.
According to sources, the Moon-Ahn competition will likely be decided by a public opinion poll. But the two sides were different on who to sample and what to ask them.
Moon’s team claims the survey should be more about finding the candidate who better represents liberal political values and priorities. They also call for an open primary-like process to complement the survey to enable more voters to participate.
Ahn on the other hand simply insists whoever has the better shot at defeating Park should be given the chance to do so.
``We have waited for this a long time. Pushed by the desires of the people for a new government … It’s critical that we are able to establish single candidacy in a process that is participated in by the people and the results are understood and supported by them,’’ claimed DUP lawmaker Park Young-sun, addressing reporters just before the meeting at a downtown Seoul restaurant.
Cho Kwang-hee, a lawyer representing Ahn, responded by saying: ``We need to invest all our good will, effort and intelligence to produce a result where both candidates win, and a single candidacy that manages to defeat Saenuri Party candidate Park Geun-hye.’’
An interesting point is that the ruling party’s threat of legal action may have boosted Moon’s case over Ahn’s. Lee Jung-hyun, head of public affairs at the Saenuri Party, confirmed that it was reviewing whether it can bring charges of bribery against Moon and Ahn over their single candidacy discussions.
He mentioned the case of former Seoul City education chief Kwak No-hyun, who was ousted earlier this year after the local court found him guilty of bribing an election rival to step down.
``We are studying Provision No. 232 of the Election Law on public officials to determine whether the conditions for a single candidacy (between Moon and Ahn) make this a sequel to the Kwak case. The National Election Commission will have to be ready as well,’’ Lee told reporters.
``A closer look is warranted as to whether the discussions between Moon and Ahn are virtually an unlawful exchange of candidacies or a trade-off like reducing the powers of the president and strengthening the powers of the prime minister.’’
With the Saenuri Party starting to talk about lawsuits, there is a possibility that Ahn will be forced to accept Moon’s idea of an open primary-like process instead of through negotiation to defuse accusations about murky arrangements.
However, what would be disturbing for Moon is that, with the election fast approaching, the only plausible method for public participation in the process to merge the candidacies would be mobile-phone voting. That is somewhere the DUP may be reluctant to go after the party suffered from a post-primary backlash in October when Moon’s rivals complained that the system of mobile-phone voting used then was vulnerable to distortion.