By Chung Min-uck
Rep. Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) revealed a package of political reform measures Monday, featuring changes in the current system.
Moon’s move came as a bid to reach out to independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo to create a much-touted unified opposition candidacy.
He cited the need to tear down the regionalism haunting politics.
Ahn had earlier suggested a “change in the nation’s party politics” as one of the main preconditions for agreeing to a single candidacy with Moon in the lead up to the Dec. 19 election.
“Local constituency seats should be reduced to at least 200 and proportional representation ones increased to 100 in order to change the current party politics mired in regionalism,” said Moon during a first meeting of his camp’s New Politics Committee, Monday.
“Abandoning vested rights of lawmakers is the starting point for new politics.”
At present, of the 300 parliamentary seats, 246 are elected from local districts and 54 are selected in a proportional representation system.
In the meeting, the DUP candidate also proposed keeping deadlines for bills aimed at reprimanding lawmakers, increasing citizens’ participation in the candidate nomination process and limiting presidential power as political reform measures.
Moon’s comments came as the liberal side seeks an alliance against Rep. Park Geun-hye, the presidential candidate of ruling Saenuri Party.
He has emphasized the need to create a “coalition government” under which power is divided between a president and prime minister. The latter would be given stronger power than now, being in charge of most domestic affairs. The president would deal mainly with foreign and security affairs under the envisioned alliance.
Various surveys show Moon and Ahn will most likely lose to Park if they fail to come up with a unified candidacy as a split in the liberal vote is expected.
In line with Moon’s efforts to reform the party, nine DUP members associated with the late former President Roh Moo-hyun Sunday resigned from his campaign.
Moon, who served as chief of state under the Roh administration, has lately been criticized for political factionalism from within as he appointed many pro-Roh figures to key posts in his election camp.
Despite the efforts, some political pundits say it is possible the two liberal hopefuls will compete separately in the presidential poll.
“The Ahn-Moon alliance is unlikely to happen,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University in Seoul. “It is understandable that average liberals want a coalition between the two. However, the actual players in the game — Ahn and Moon — cannot think of anything else but achieving this with themselves as the sole candidate.”
The professor also added such a tendency will become more certain as Park’s popularity falls and the liberals’ support rises.
The DUP previously aimed to engage in a discussion on an opposition alliance with Ahn’s side as early as this month.
However, the plan was disrupted after Ahn rejected Moon’s offers including a request for him to join the DUP.
The entrepreneur-turned-politician also made it clear he is confident in defeating Moon if they compete to be chosen as sole liberal candidate.
Ahn is allegedly planning to launch a new political party after winning the presidential election as representative candidate of the liberals.
“The call for an opposition alliance shows people’s desire for regime change,” said Park Sun-sook, co-chairman of Ahn’s election camp. “If oppositions form an alliance, a candidate who can achieve victory in the December poll should be selected, and Ahn will surely win.”