Ex-Seoul mayoral candidates return for another bid
Former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, second from right, shakes hands with the main opposition People Power Party's emergency committee chief Kim Chong-in after winning the party's primary to be the main opposition candidate to run in the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election, at the party's headquarters on Yeouido, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
By Jung Da-min
Political heavyweights of the liberal and opposition blocs are set to compete for the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election, with parties announcing their final candidates who won their party's tickets through primaries.
The candidates of the major parties are not new faces but those who have run for the post in previous elections. In the case of the main opposition People Power Party's final candidate Oh Se-hoon, he already served as mayor from 2006 to 2011.
The PPP announced Thursday that Oh won its ticket for by-election by beating former four-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won and former two-term lawmaker Oh Shin-hwan in the party's primary.
For the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is former SMEs and Startups Minister Park Young-sun, who beat four-term lawmaker Rep. Woo Sang-ho in the party's primary, Monday. Park previously competed with former Mayor Park Won-soon, who was an independent candidate in 2011 and a DPK member in 2018, but Park Won-soon won both elections.
Former SMEs and Startups Minister Park Young-sun speaks during an interview with the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, at her election camp office in Seoul, Tuesday, a day after confirming her ticket to run in the April 7 Seoul mayoral election after winning the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's primary. Korea Times photo by Lee Han-ho
Other than the two major parties, minor opposition People's Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo was also confirmed Monday as the winner of a third-party primary conducted through a public opinion poll, against former DPK lawmaker Keum Tae-sup. Ahn's bid for the mayoral post of the capital is also his third attempt following previous elections in 2011 and 2018.
All eyes are now on whether the country's conservative bloc will field a single candidate, choosing between Oh and Ahn. When declaring his bid for the by-election in late December, Ahn rolled out a plan to form a coalition government for the capital with people from different opposition parties appointed to the city administration's main posts.
Ahn has since said he will compete to become a single unified candidate representing the whole opposition bloc, including the main opposition PPP. But although many PPP members agreed on the need for a single candidate to win the by-election against the ruling bloc to “judge” the Moon Jae-in administration, the PPP leadership and Ahn have yet to narrow down their differences on the selection process.
People's Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo speaks during an interview with the Hankook Ilbo at the party headquarters on Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han
The PPP's emergency committee chief Kim Chong-in had invited Ahn to join the main opposition party, but Ahn turned it down.
After the PPP declared Oh the winner of the party primary, Ahn told reporters that he would meet Oh as soon as possible to discuss how they could cooperate in a “constructive” way.
Meanwhile, the DPK's candidate Park could also push for unification with a minor opposition candidate, two-term lawmaker Rep. Kim Jin-ae of the liberal minor opposition Open Minjoo Party, who said Tuesday that she would resign from her lawmaker post to compete fairly with Park. Kim needs to resign from the post by March 8 in order to run in the April 7 by-election.