By Jun Ji-hye
Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo said Tuesday that he will launch a new political party by the end of March, three months before the local elections.
“I realized anew that my decision to push for a new politics was right. Old politics can do nothing to improve the livelihood of the people,” said Ahn.
Yoon Yeo-joon, the former environment minister who co-chairs the “new politics promotion committee,” a preparatory body for creating Ahn’s party, said, “We will form a party by the end of March. Ahn’s new party will field candidates for all 17 municipal and gubernatorial posts in the June 4 local elections.”
Ahn and Yoon made the comments during a visit to Jeju Island to explain their vision of his proposed party.
This is the first time that Ahn has confirmed a specific plan for the new party since the first-term lawmaker, who entered the National Assembly through the April by-elections last year, began to flesh out its apparatus.
Ahn’s plan to field candidates in the local polls will make the local elections a three-way race along with the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP).
Also, competition to grab the initiative to realign the opposition bloc is expected to be further intensified between the DP and Ahn’s new party.
At a meeting with a group of reporters on the resort island, Ahn said that politicians are still forcing the people to choose to be either conservative or progressive.
“They are following the same bad attitudes as before,” said Ahn, stressing the need for the emergence of a “third force.”
The former independent presidential candidate added that the new party will reject such extremism, and instead embrace a variety of people in order to accomplish national unity.
“My new party will seek rational reform to eradicate various political ills accumulated for decades within the nation. A great change will definitely be realized,” he said.
In recent days, the former doctor and software business man has not hesitated to fire salvos against both the governing party and the DP in an effort to display his influence in political circles.
Commenting on a recent political debate involving whether to abolish the parties’ selection of candidates running in the local polls, Ahn criticized the ruling party and President Park Geun-hye for reversing election pledges.
In the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election, the ruling party’s President Park, the DP’s Moon Jae-in and Ahn all promised to scrap the nomination system in order to reform the process of local elections, but the ruling party recently appeared to oppose the measure.
Ahn said, “The reason for the existence of a political party is not just to win in the elections.”
He also took aim at the DP which downplayed the political figures that he recruited recently, arguing, “If the DP candidates are beaten by my people of ‘less influence,’ then it will make a public disgrace of itself.”
Various opinion polls show that approval ratings for Ahn’s future party fall behind those for the ruling party, but have overtaken those for the largest opposition party.