Ahn Chul-soo’s candidacy for the Seoul mayoral by-election late in October is getting closer to reality day by day despite his ambivalence, alerting both ruling and opposition parties. Close associates of the 49-year-old software businessman-cum-social critic say his running for Seoul mayor is “90 percent certain.” In opinion surveys of Seoul citizens, Ahn commands an overwhelming lead, with double figures over the closest contender.

Some media analysts are equating the present “Ahn Chul-soo syndrome” to the first direct mayoral election in 1995 when independent candidate Park Chan-jong put up a strong challenge against major party candidates. The result was Park finishing behind opposition nominee Cho Soon, though he edged the ruling party’s Chung Won-sik, a former prime minister.

The social atmosphere of the Republic of Korea in 2011 is much different from what it was 16 years ago, and public disenchantment with partisan politics is even stronger in the capital, the center of political, economic and cultural activities. A citizens’ referendum on free school lunches on Aug. 24 initiated by conservative mayor Oh Se-hoon had the voter turnout far below the minimum required 33.3 percent. The liberal opposition declared victory but the result in fact reflected the electorate’s distancing themselves from increasingly frustrating partisan feuds these days.

Ahn, head of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, started AhnLab in 1995 which has become the nation’s largest software firm. He distributed his anti-virus programs free-of-charge and soon emerged as a public service icon among the younger generation. He has preached his moderate liberal ideas for social reform, sharply critical of the conglomerate-dominated economic order, in frequent lectures and symposiums across the country.

He has turned down numerous invitations to politics from both ruling and opposition camps in recent years. Yet, Ahn hints at his interest in the Seoul mayoral election this time, saying that he believes the chief magistrate of the capital city can do a lot for a better life of the people without being dragged into party politics.

Suddenly caught in the mayoral election following the botched referendum that forced the departure of Mayor Oh, the Grand National Party is extremely cautious about the nomination of its candidates. Conceding Seoul to the opposition could accelerate the liberal surge and lead to defeats in the National Assembly elections in April and presidential vote in December. Now the Ahn Chul-soo factor opens a wholly new situation.

Park Chan-jong in 1995 also appealed to public frustration with divisive partisan politics but his credentials as a maverick in the ruling party having originally been recruited by the military-backed Democratic Republican Party in the 1970s had much less attraction than what Ahn now stands for. Parties have definitely devolved in the intervening years in terms of their appeals to the general public while voters now seek a fresher, cleaner and preferably business-savvy leader.

Ahn’s candidacy will be decided within days. Lawyer Park Won-soon has already declared his bid for mayoral seat as a representative of liberal civic groups. The opposition camp, where Han Myung-sook, Chun Jung-bae, Park Young-sun and Won Hye-young are vying for nomination, is as much shaken by the emergence of independent candidates commanding broad public respect.

The absence of organizational support will be a significant shortcoming for independent candidates in the forthcoming mayoral by-election. But their candidacy will bring to polling booths many younger voters frustrated with existing parties who otherwise would choose to abstain. The major parties now have two choices: either to seek alliances with the independent bidders in whatever gambit they may devise or to pick up as fresh a character as possible from their ranks to take advantage of the certain multiple-candidate race.

As for Ahn Chul-soo and Park Won-soon, we hope they are already well aware of how difficult it is to make the right and just actions for society with the heavy responsibility of the people’s mandate.