Ahn proposes meeting with Park

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chairman of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, urges President Park Geun-hye to live up to her presidential campaign pledge to scrap top down nominations of candidates for district offices and counties during a news conference at the National Assembly. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chairman of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), proposed a meeting with President Park Geun-hye, Sunday, to discuss abolishing the party nomination system for local elections.

In a press conference at the National Assembly, Ahn said, “As a leader of the main opposition party, I request a meeting with President Park to talk about outstanding political issues including the need to end parties nominating candidates for lower-level municipal and provincial council elections.”

The NPAD is a newly established coalition between the Democratic Party (DP) and supporters of Ahn.

Ahn, a former independent presidential candidate, noted that Park as the ruling Saenuri Party candidate, himself, and Rep. Moon Jae-in, the DP candidate, all promised to abolish the nomination system during the 2012 presidential election.

“If politicians habitually break their promises to the public, that will damage the democratic process,” said Ahn. “Fulfilling a promise is a basic virtue. This will also be a way of normalizing abnormalities that the President has been pushing.”

The remarks come as the governing party decided to maintain the nomination system for the June 4 local elections.

The DP and Ahn called on the ruling party to agree on the abolition even before their merger decision.

“Park needs to speak clearly about whether the promise to scrap the system was a problematic proposal from the beginning, or whether the party wants to break it for its own political gains,” said Ahn.

In an attempt to pressure the governing camp, Ahn and former DP chairman Rep. Kim Han-gil, the other co-chairman of the coalition, visited Seoul Station to collect public signatures for a petition.

During the event, Ahn said: “When the presidential election was looming, President Park and I attended a meeting with about 3,800 municipal councilors. Park at the time said, if elected, she will abolish the system, receiving loud applause from the participants.”

He claimed Park is maintaining silent about this after her inauguration.

Rep. Kim said, “President Park and the Saenuri Party must fulfill its campaign pledge, otherwise the people can no longer trust them.”

The ruling party downplayed Ahn’s request, saying how to conduct elections was a matter for the party, not the head of state.

“We wonder whether Ahn resolved internal conflicts about the abolition of the party nomination system before making such a request to the President,” said spokeswoman Rep. Min Hyun-joo.

Min referred to some senior lawmakers from the DP including Rep. Moon who expressed their skepticism over Ahn and Kim’s decision to end the nomination system.

They recently said that if only the NPAD does not nominate candidates, the results will be favorable for the Saenuri Party.

However, the two leaders made clear that the coalition will push for the scrapping of the system during its inauguration ceremony last Wednesday.