Rep. Yoo Seong-min wins Bareun Party nomination

Rep. Yoo Seong-min responds to supporters at a gymnasium at Olympic Park in southern Seoul, Tuesday, after winning the Bareun Party’s presidential nomination primary race. / Yonhap

By Kim Hyo-jin

Rep. Yoo Seong-min clinched the Bareun Party’s nomination for the May 9 presidential election, Tuesday.

Yoo swept all four primary elections over Gyeonggi Province Governor Nam Kyung-pil, garnering 62.9 percent of the votes.

“I will be a new hope for conservatives,” Yoo said in an acceptance speech. “With the people yearning for a rebuilding of the conservatives, I will make sure to be chosen in the presidential election.”

His nomination was widely expected following overwhelming victories in earlier primaries. In last week’s voting by non-party members, Yoo swept every poll in four regions nationwide with support of 60 percent.

The final result came after it was combined with public surveys, online voting, and an on-the-spot poll by party members.

The focus is now being shifted to whether the Bareun Party and the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) will field a unified candidate in the election. Yoo has repeatedly said during the primary race that he is willing to talk about this with the former ruling party.

The biggest hurdle to this could be the stubborn loyalists of the ousted former President Park Geun-hye who are still influencing the LKP. Yoo bolted from the party following a power struggle with Park’s followers and founded the Bareun Party together with other dissenters. The new party played a crucial role in impeaching Park. A key troubling factor for Yoo in seeking a consensus with the LKP on a single candidate could be the Park loyalists’ grudge against him.

What is encouraging for him is South Gyeongsang Province Governor Hong Joon-pyo, categorized as anti-Park, is leading the LKP primaries. Hong is open to the idea of joining forces with the Bareun Party under the name of the conservative bloc in the election.

“For Yoo, the end of the primaries is the start of real competition,” Lee Jin-gon, a political science professor at Kyung Hee University, said, noting that discussions for a unified candidate will swamp the presidential race once all parties nominate their candidates.

Even if the start of such talks open, things could work against Yoo, who suffers low popularity, political commentators said. In the latest Realmeter poll, Hong garnered support of 9.5 percent, followed by Rep. Kim Jin-tae, another LKP presidential aspirant with 5 percent, while Yoo posted a mere 2.2 percent.

“It is hard to tell if Yoo has an advantage for now,” said Kim Hyung-joon a professor of politics at Myongji University. “Having said that, I think his chance of winning the candidacy depends on how the two parties set the rules for the process of putting forth a single candidate.”

Yoo, a former economist at the Korea Development Institute (KDI), started his political career as the head of the Yeouido Institute, the former ruling party’s think tank in 2000. He helped the primary and presidential campaigns of Park in 2007 and 2012, emerging as her close aide.

He was soon estranged from Park as he became an open critic of her policies while serving as the party’s floor leader. Park dubbed Yoo as a “betrayer of politics,” leaving him poles apart from her loyalists in the party.

He bolted from the party with dozens of fellow lawmakers in the wake of the presidential corruption scandal erupting late last year. Since the split, Yoo failed to secure the support from traditional conservative voters. He has trailed Hong by a large margin in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, the conservative home turf.

With a slogan of being a “rational conservative,” he is seeking to widen his support base.

However, commentators say it would be difficult for him to find room in Korean politics with his “ideological ambiguity.” “It doesn’t work when his pledges on security overlap those of LKP candidates and pledges on economics overlap those of liberal party candidates,” Kim said.