Ahn rejects Moon's apology

Talks on single candidacy hit make-or-break point

By Kim Tong-hyung

Independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo rejected an apology by Moon Jae-in, Thursday, over what the Ahn side argues were dirty tricks in the moves to decide on a unified candidate.

The standoff is putting pressure on the candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) at a time when his popularity is surpassing Ahn in many opinion polls on the Dec. 19 presidential election.

``I am feeling deep disappointment. We can’t win in the presidential election this way,’’ Ahn told reporters at his campaign office in downtown Seoul.

On Wednesday, he called off talks to select a single candidate between the two to run against the ruling Saenuri Party’s Park Geun-hye.

``The process toward achieving a single candidacy is more important than the outcome itself,’’ he added.

However, Ahn later told journalists during a visit to the children’s center that he remains committed to the efforts for merging the candidacies, stressing he will not ``let the people down.’’

Ahn’s backers have accused DUP members of deliberately spreading rumors through mobile-phone text messages that Ahn was moving toward conceding his candidacy to Moon. They were also angered by a Tweet by Moon’s now-former associate Baek Won-woo, who questioned why Lee Tae-gyu, a former presidential secretary of President Lee Myung-bak, was given a role in Ahn’s camp.

Talking with reporters in Busan earlier in the day, Moon sounded eager to put the single candidacy talks back on track and apologized to Ahn and his campaign managers ``if we did anything to upset them.’’ While Baek was quickly removed from his camp, Moon continued to deny accusations of distributing misinformation and backstabbing.

``I will do what I can when I get back to Seoul and solve the conflict quickly … The process of merging the candidacies was never going to be always smooth. We were going to hit some rocks here and there. Nonetheless, it’s regrettable that we had to halt the talks just a day after we officially started them,’’ Moon said.

``If we did anything to discredit or insult Ahn and his camp, I apologize to them. I will assure them that those things won’t happen again. We are doing our best to put the talks back on track.’’

The apology was insufficient for Ahn’s campaign managers, who vowed not to return to the negotiation table unless Moon and his DUP helpers show ``responsible actions’’ to correct the things they deny doing.

Moon and Ahn plan to hold a televised presidential debate that is likely to air early next week. But that’s about the only meaningful thing they managed to agree on as their negotiations quickly degenerated into a 24/7 reality show. The two candidates had been expected to address the public with a joint statement over their partnership Thursday, but this looks officially out of the question for now.

Time is not a luxury for Moon and Ahn as they have about 10 days until Nov. 26, the deadline for registering as a presidential candidate, to decide who will be on the ballots on Dec. 19.

The turbulence between them has allowed the Saenuri Party to intensify its verbal attack on the single candidacy effort, denouncing it as political collusion and threatening to bring charges against Moon and Ahn for selling and buying candidacies. While recent opinion polls favor Park in a three-way race, the outcome is dramatically more unpredictable if Moon or Ahn withdraws.

``So it now appears that Ahn has finally come to the realization that he has walked into a trap set up by Moon. It was obvious that this was coming,’’ said Kim Moo-sung, the lawmaker in charge of the Saenuri Party’s election strategies.

``But it’s too late for Ahn to regret. They have already announced they will merge their candidacies before the last day of candidate registration. There’s no use scrambling now. We hope that they resume their talks swiftly and decide on the candidate, which is the least they can do for voters.’’

The competition between Moon and Ahn will likely come down to a public opinion poll. But the camps have struggled to agree on who to quiz and what to ask them.

Moon says the survey should be more about finding the candidate who better represents liberal political values and priorities. He also calls for an open primary-like process to complement the opinion poll to enable more voters to participate in the process. Ahn on the other hand simply insists whoever has the better shot at defeating Park should be given the chance to do so and prefers the opinion poll to be decisive.

The Saenuri’s threat of legal action may have boosted Moon’s case as it now seems some sort of citizen participation, most likely a primary based on mobile-phone voting, is inevitable, according to an election official who refused to be named.

There has been growing apprehension among Ahn’s campaign managers over the results of opinion polls that show Ahn’s edge in popularity over Moon evaporating, which may have influenced them to break from the talks.

Camp insiders have been questioning the results of the most-used daily surveys by Realmeter, which are done mechanically through automated answering systems, resulting in dramatically lower response rates than when done by pollsters. Predictably, Moon’s people show more respect for Realmeter data.

It’s hard to imagine the wedge driven between Moon and Ahn resulting in a clear separation. That would greatly enhance Park’s chances to succeed current President Lee Myung-bak and extend the ruling party’s run at Cheong Wa Dae and neither Moon and Ahn would be willing to bear the blame from liberal voters for another election loss.

However, it’s also worth questioning whether all the bickering and lack of chemistry in recent weeks has voters cooling on Moon and Ahn and the winner between them would not be as appealing as he could have been.