Moon Jae-in, the front-runner in the main opposition party's presidential primary, aims to secure more than 50 percent of all votes cast to avoid the need for a run-off election, campaign sources said Friday.
The former chief of staff to late President Roh Moo-hyun and first-term lawmaker won all eight of the Democratic United Party (DUP) local primary elections that kicked off on Jeju Island on Aug. 25.
Moon said earlier he aims to win at least half of the eligible votes cast up to and including Sept. 16, when voters in Seoul vote for the DUP presidential hopeful. Failure to meet the target would result in the lawmaker having to compete in a run-off with the second-place finisher, with those results announced on Sept. 23.
At present, the 59-year-old has earned 46.8 percent, or 95,813 votes, of all ballots cast in the open primary, well ahead of the 25.9 percent tally earned by runner-up Sohn Hak-kyu, a special advisor for the party.
The two are trailed by former South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Doo-kwan and former commerce minister Chung Sye-kyun, who won 18.8 percent and 8.5 percent of votes so far, respectively.
Rep. Yun Kwan-suk, Moon's campaign spokesman, said the contender has so far done well in areas where his support base is not solid.
"Having done this well is a good sign for him to end the race without going to a second round," the lawmaker claimed.
The DUP is expected to hold a local primary in Busan on Saturday and to hold the vote in Sejong City and Daejeon the following day.
The regional race for Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province will be held on Wednesday, followed by Gyeonggi Province and Seoul next Saturday and Sunday.
"The remaining areas are expected to provide Moon with enough votes to end the primary before the run-off race," Yun said.
Party sources said Moon is trying his best to win the party ticket quickly so he can catch up with the head start of ruling Saenuri Party presidential hopeful, Park Geun-hye. The five-term lawmaker won her party ticket on Aug. 20 and has been moving forward calling for national unity to help her cause to become the next president. There is also the need to discuss a single candidate for the opposition camp with Ahn Cheol-soo, an entrepreneur-turned-professor who is popular with young people and urban dwellers.
Sohn and the other two candidates also said they will try to win as many votes in the five remaining races to ensure that the public will get the chance to pick a candidate who has the best chance of winning the presidential race.
Sohn, who has the best chance of finishing second, has been moving to strengthen ties with the other contenders and win their support in case of a run-off.
He also said that, depending on the turnout in the key Gyeonggi Province, the chances of him facing Moon in a second round will rise. Sohn was governor of the province from 2002 through 2006.
The three hopefuls agreed there is a need to revamp the primary rules for the run-off as they have been shown to give too much power to mobile phone voters and not enough voice to party members and those that vote off-line. (Yonhap)