PPP infighting risks alienating swing voters

Kim Moon-soo, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, offers his hand to Kweon Seong-dong, its floor leader, as he leaves the party's meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap

Riven by internal strife ahead of the June 3 presidential election, the conservative People Power Party (PPP) is struggling to rally around a single candidate in what is shaping up to be a tough race against frontrunner Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).

Amid escalating tensions within the party's leadership, PPP presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo has firmly rejected calls to merge his campaign with that of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. Kim dismissed the request ahead of Sunday’s deadline, set by Han and party leaders, deepening the divide within the conservative bloc.

The push for unity comes at a time when consolidating support behind a single conservative candidate is widely viewed as essential to mounting a viable challenge to the DPK's Lee, who continues to lead in many polls by a significant margin.

Party preference surveys show only a narrow gap between the two major parties, suggesting that Lee is not unbeatable, if the opposition can present a united front. Despite widespread public frustration with the PPP, particularly over the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol and the political turmoil that followed, Lee’s approval ratings have consistently remained below 50 percent, indicating that a substantial portion of swing voters remains undecided.

However, according to one political pundit, the PPP has so far failed to harness that sentiment to its advantage.

“But so far, the party appears to have failed to form such a coalition,” said Kim Sung-soo, a professor of political science and diplomacy at Hanyang University. “So if the PPP continues to remain divided, many swing voters may just give up casting their ballots this time,” he said.

Another poll, conducted from Wednesday to Thursday by Metavoice, shows that 71 percent of respondents see the PPP leadership as chiefly responsible for the current rift within the conservative party. Only 18.2 percent said Kim should be blamed. Even among those who identified themselves as conservative, 66.3 percent said incumbent PPP leaders are most responsible for the problem.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol sits inside the courtroom of the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, April 21. Newsis

Many view the PPP’s internal conflict as less about the current presidential race and more about the power struggle over the party’s future leadership, which will play a key role in the selection of candidates for next year’s local elections.

Yoon remains the central figure responsible for the divisions inside the PPP, with his acolytes trying to stay in power even after his ouster. Han, who served as Yoon’s prime minister during his three years in office, is known to have been backed by the group. The self-inflicted damage from Yoon’s controversial martial law decree and the impeachment that followed shows no signs of abating and may linger during and after the party’s election campaign.

Hong Joon-pyo, an influential figure who refrained from criticizing Yoon during his term, has recently turned his back on the former president, blaming him and his loyalists for “ruining the country and the party” by propping up Han as a potential PPP candidate.

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, who made it to the final four contenders in the primary before losing the race, has called on the PPP to expel Yoon as a member, a request rejected by both Kim and Han.

Rep. Lee Jun-seok, the presidential candidate of the minor Reform Party, has also dismissed the possibility of merging his campaign with the PPP, saying he does not have any interest due to Yoon’s “shadow hanging” over it.