Former presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo has made a political comeback with his election as leader of the People's Party Sunday. The mogul-turned-politician will lead the party for the next 18 months.
Ahn has two crucial tasks ahead to salvage the embattled party which he co-founded in January 2016.
First, he needs to restore the people's trust in the minor opposition party. The People's Party has been losing public support after a scandal erupted in June over the party's defamatory smear campaign of then-rival Moon Jae-in during the presidential race.
The party's approval rating tumbled to around 5 percent after the embarrassing scandal. The public was disgusted by the cowardly response from Ahn and the party leaders, who claimed they did not know about the scheme.
Secondly, he needs to build a strong party with a clear centrist vision and policies to improve the people's livelihood ahead of local elections in June 2018.
Many believed that after the scandal, there was no future for Ahn or his party. But despite his many shortcomings, he has been given a second chance at leading the party, winning by a large margin over his competitors, including Chung Dong-young, a former presidential candidate and unification minister. This shows that Ahn's promise of new, clean politics still carries weight.
During the presidential campaign, Ahn had some good ideas, such as reforming the public school system to meet the demands of the new technology revolution. As leader of the third largest party, he should follow up on such attractive proposals and work with other parties to make headway with them.
The party should also play an active role in bringing checks and balances against the government and present alternative policies, particularly in the areas where the Moon administration is failing, such as national security and population issues. That is the only way to convince people that his party is worthy of their votes in the upcoming elections.
Ahn has two crucial tasks ahead to salvage the embattled party which he co-founded in January 2016.
First, he needs to restore the people's trust in the minor opposition party. The People's Party has been losing public support after a scandal erupted in June over the party's defamatory smear campaign of then-rival Moon Jae-in during the presidential race.
The party's approval rating tumbled to around 5 percent after the embarrassing scandal. The public was disgusted by the cowardly response from Ahn and the party leaders, who claimed they did not know about the scheme.
Secondly, he needs to build a strong party with a clear centrist vision and policies to improve the people's livelihood ahead of local elections in June 2018.
Many believed that after the scandal, there was no future for Ahn or his party. But despite his many shortcomings, he has been given a second chance at leading the party, winning by a large margin over his competitors, including Chung Dong-young, a former presidential candidate and unification minister. This shows that Ahn's promise of new, clean politics still carries weight.
During the presidential campaign, Ahn had some good ideas, such as reforming the public school system to meet the demands of the new technology revolution. As leader of the third largest party, he should follow up on such attractive proposals and work with other parties to make headway with them.
The party should also play an active role in bringing checks and balances against the government and present alternative policies, particularly in the areas where the Moon administration is failing, such as national security and population issues. That is the only way to convince people that his party is worthy of their votes in the upcoming elections.
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