Moon declares presidential bid on social media

By Choi Ha-young

Moon Jae-in

Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) declared his bid for the presidency in a recorded video posted on major social media platforms, Friday.

Under the slogan of “Citizens and Moon Running Together,” the campaign team posted three video clips, titled “Altogether,” “Moon Jae-in” and “Overseas Residents” on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at 10 a.m.

“I’m determined to change politics based on wishes from all people that the nation should be different from the past,” he said. “Korea must be a fair country where common sense prevails. Its society must be one where justice is seen, heard and felt.”

Except the first two sentences read by Moon, various people from 26 locations ― cities across Korea, Florida, Seattle, Spain, Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, China and United Kingdom ― read a supportive statement. Around 5,000 citizens participated in this project, according to Moon’s camp.

People from all walks of life ― from a foreign worker and a career woman with a baby to a disabled person and a man who has family in North Korea ― delivered their wishes for the next administration.

They expressed hopes that Moon will win the May 9 presidential election and rebuild the nation. The poll will be held earlier than originally scheduled following the Constitutional Court’s ruling to remove the scandal-hit President Park Geun-hye.

For the 2012 U.S. presidential election, Barack Obama produced a video clip featuring citizens’ diverse voices, as did Hillary Clinton last year. Typically, presidential candidates here have chosen a specific site to show off their unique backgrounds.

This time, South Chungcheong Province Gov. An Hee-jung also from the DPK chose a small theater in a campus town, while the entrepreneur-turned politician Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party revealed his bid at a startup co-working place where Jeremy Rifkin has lectured. Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung of the DPK announced his bid at a factory where he worked as a child.

In 2012, Moon did it in front of Seodaemun Prison in Seoul, where he was imprisoned for his role in the pro-democracy movement at 22, emphasizing his identity to represent liberals.

The leading candidate is expected to win the DPK primary that kicks off on Monday in the southern city of Gwangju. According to a Realmeter survey issued Friday, Moon cemented his firm lead with 36.2 percent, followed by Gov. An with 18.4 percent.

In the Jeolla region, Moon also extended his lead with 33 percent, even if it decreased by 14 percent compared to 47 percent in a week ago. This week he was embroiled in a scandal that he received a presidential citation from ex-President Chun Doo-hwan, who directed a massacre of Gwangju civilians in 1980.

To court voters on the liberals’ home turf, Moon vowed to abolish discrimination against those who are from the province and increase investments in less-developed area. “I came to Gwangju, with desperation,” he said at the press conference in the city, Monday.

In 2012, 92 percent of them voted for Moon but they threw their support behind the People’s Party in the general election last April, citing the DPK’s “indifference” to the province.