Presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party on Sunday suggested unifying candidacies with the main opposition party’s Yoon Suk-yeol, and letting the public decide which of them will run. 

“Today I suggest the candidates of the opposition parties to merge campaigns for a complete regime change and to call an end to the old system (in politics),” Ahn said in a livestream on his YouTube channel.

Ahn explained that, even if an opposition party candidate wins in the presidential election, consensus from the public is crucial as over half of the 300 seats at the National Assembly is occupied by lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.

“(After agreeing on a campaign merger) first, we should announce a unified vision on state affairs and tasks in priority, and then choose the ultimate candidate (of the unified campaign) via a public primary and surveys,” Ahn said. He added that the other nominee would run as the “running mate” to support the ultimate candidate chosen in the public survey.

Ahn also dismissed concerns that the public primary may be too cumbersome, citing his previous experience to concede to Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon in the Seoul mayoral by-election in April, last year.

“We already have an agreed format on candidacy unification, from the Seoul mayoral by-election last year, so if we pursue that same method, the unification discussion will end quickly,” Ahn said.

On Ahn’s proposal, the main opposition People Power Party stuck to their previous suggestion that its flagbearer Yoon and Ahn would privately discuss the campaign merger to come to an agreement on the ultimate candidate.

“I will think over the proposal. But it leaves something to be desired,” Yoon told reporters, after his meeting with former US Vice President Mike Pence in Seoul.

The People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok criticized Ahn’s suggestion, and the party’s spokesman Lee Yang-soo also released a statement effectively rejecting Ahn’s proposal.

“The People Power Party views positively of Ahn’s proposal as accepting the nationwide desire for regime change. But the suggested method of holding a ‘public primary,’ may come to hinder that effort,” Lee Yang-soo said in the statement.

With the big gap between Yoon and Ahn’s support ratings, Lee said the candidate primary between opposition party nominees may create division among the opposition bloc and play in favor of the ruling party rival Lee Jae-myung.

Yoon, currently running neck and neck with Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, presumably seeks to cement his chances at victory by merging campaigns with Ahn and absorbing Ahn’s voter base.

The main opposition party’s nominee previously proposed Ahn to merge campaigns with him, and decide the ultimate runner in a one-on-one negotiation.

In the latest Realmeter survey on Sunday, Yoon was leading the race with 41.6 percent in support, with Lee behind at 39.1 percent. Ahn stood at a distant third with 7.7 percent, and Sim Sang-jung of the minor progressive Justice Party posted 2.8 percent.

The survey, commissioned by OhmyNews, was conducted from Feb. 2 to Friday among 3,040 adults.

Ahn’s livestreamed proposal comes after his campaign chief registered the candidacy for Ahn at the National Election Commission, as the two-day registration period opened Sunday.

Ahn was supposed to register his candidacy himself and hold a press conference there, but canceled the event after his wife, Kim Mi-kyung, was confirmed earlier in the morning to have contracted the COVID-19. Ahn also took a PCR test, and livestreamed his announcement via YouTube. Ahn canceled all scheduled events for Sunday, including his trip to Busan, and was waiting for the test results as of Sunday afternoon.

Other presidential contenders, Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party and Sim Sang-jung of the minor opposition Justice Party, all registered their candidacies on Sunday.

For more information regarding the survey results, visit the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission homepage.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)