Little headway seen in PPP's push for candidacy merger with minor party's Lee
People Power Party presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo, left, and Lee Jun-seok of the minor Reform Party appeal to voters in rallies, in this composite photo, May 25. Yonhap
Prospects of a candidacy merger between People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-soo and Lee Jun-seok of the minor Reform Party (RP) appear increasingly unlikely, as early voting for the June 3 presidential election is set to begin later this week.
While the PPP has urged for the conservative bloc to unite behind a single candidate against front-runner Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, the RP's Lee, who trails far behind his rivals in polls, has continued to snub the proposal.
With the two-day early voting period set to kick off Thursday, the PPP has voiced the need for "strategic voting" in a three-way race, while the relatively nascent RP has called on voters to cast their ballots "for the future."
"If the RP expresses that it has no thoughts for a candidacy merger, there is a need to respect that," Rep. Kim Yong-tae, the PPP's interim leader, told reporters Tuesday. "Even if there is no merger, (we) are confident that Kim Moon-soo will be able to win in a three-way race."
The remarks mark a sharp contrast from his comments the previous day, when he asked the RP for its conditions for a merger.
Yun Jae-ok, the PPP's chief campaign manager, told Yonhap News Agency that voters will ultimately vote "strategically" if a merger fails to materialize and cast their ballots for his party's candidate.
Meanwhile, the RP's Lee appeared intent on pressing ahead with his campaign, slamming the PPP's outreach as "base trickery" and calling on the younger generation to take part in early voting in a Facebook post earlier in the day.
Despite the RP's rejections, some PPP officials are still holding out for a last-minute merger.
"We cannot rule out the possibility that it will happen suddenly," Rep. Bae June-young said in a KBS radio interview.
In the 2022 presidential election, the PPP's then candidate, former President Yoon Suk Yeol, merged candidacies with Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party, just one day before early voting began.