Race gets tougher for Moon Jae-in

What went wrong for Moon Jae-in, presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK)?

By Choi Ha-young

Moon Jae-in

The once odds-on favorite to become the country’s next leader is now facing a serious challenge from Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party, a smaller liberal party, as conservative voters are rallying around Ahn.

In some opinion polls, Ahn has overtaken Moon.

A KBS poll, conducted one month before the May 9 presidential election, showed Ahn has support of 36.8 percent, 4.1 percentage points higher than Moon. Hong Joon-pyo of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) came third with 6.5 percent, while Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party had 2.8 percent and Yoo Seong-min of the Bareun Party gained 1.5 percent.

In a hypothetical two-way race, Ahn had a wide lead on Moon by 13.2 percentage points.

The two are in a neck-and-neck race in other polls released Sunday and Monday. In a Chosun Ilbo survey, Ahn was supported by 34.4 percent of respondents, 2.2 percentage points more than Moon. They were tied for the top spot in a Hankyoreh poll at 37.7 percent.

Pundits commonly pointed out voters have no confidence in Moon’s campaign strategies. “Since former President Park Geun-hye and her associates were jailed, Moon’s core pledge to remove the old evils is drawing less attention,” said Choi Byung-chun, a political commentator.

Moon pledged to rebuild the nation based on citizens’ wishes for social reform. As Ahn is catching up, the former DPK chief has defined Ahn as part of the old evils to be removed, lashing out at Ahn’s centrist moves.

“The presidential election is a showdown between the anti-Park protesters and corrupt forces,” Moon told reporters, Sunday. However, Ahn has firmly declined to cooperate with far-right groups.

“It is not appropriate to group Ahn in with some far-right figures who are rallying around him. Most of Ahn’s supporters are ordinary people who could also vote for Moon in the election,” Cho Kuk, a law professor at Seoul National University, said on Facebook.

Ahn, the former head of the People’s Party with 40 lawmakers, has raised suspicions about Moon’s alleged abuse of authority to arrange a job for his son.

In response to Ahn’s offensives, Moon raised Ahn’s alleged relationship with gangsters and his daughter’s alleged hidden assets. However, the countermeasures were not effective.

“Ahn’s supporters include anti-Moon voters. On the other hand, Moon’s counterattack with intangible evidence added fuel to the negative sentiment against him,” Hangil Research director Hong Hyeong-sik said.

Hong also said the Moon camp has failed to communicate with voters.

“Though the camp recruited many experts, they are largely disoriented. In fact, pro-Moon politicians are leading the camp unilaterally,” Hong said.