The process of merging the campaigns of Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo appears likely to get underway early next month to complete the merger before the final candidate registration on Nov. 25 and 26.
According to sources, officials in the two camps have already been in contact regarding the issue.
While no official merger-related activity has taken place, even Ahn and his aides have been showing signs of warming to the idea despite their earlier position.
On Oct. 19, Ahn spoke up publicly on the issue for the first time saying “if unification occurs due to public demand, I will win there (the process of selecting the united candidate) and run to the end.”
Meanwhile, co-chair of Ahn’s election committee Rep. Song Ho-chang has stated, “The task is for the two candidates to put their strengths together before the candidate registration at the end of November.”
As Ahn’s camp creeps toward accepting the call to merge, Moon’s aides continued to take a more overt and active approach to bringing about the merger.
“Bold innovation is needed to realize the political wishes of the public. For this, we believe that a union of Ahn’s idealism and Moon’s experience must be achieved,” Rep. Jin Sung-joon, the spokesman for Moon’s campaign, said.
“We have suggested the formation of the joint political reform committee, and the offer still stands. If a committee is burdensome, beginning discussions with less formality is also possible.”
The pressure to merge their campaigns from outside the political arena is also rising.
On Thursday, a group of senior progressive figures including Seoul National University professor emeritus Paik Nak-chung, Father Ham Se-woong and Rev. Kim Sang-geun called for Ahn and Moon to “combine their strengths” when the official campaign period begins.
The announcement follows on the heels of a similar call from a group of 102 progressive arts and literary figures who said that the “unification (of Ahn and Moon’s candidacy) is the spirit of democracy and of the time” and that achieving regime change is the most important topic in the country.
As the progressives moved deeper into the campaign merger issue, conservatives stepped up their attack on both the merger and the two main opposition candidates.
Speaking on local radio, Rep. Rhee In-je of the Advancement and Unification Party disparaged the possible merger between Ahn and Moon as “collusion,” while referring to his and Saenuri parties’ planned merger as a “creative union.”
The plans to merge Rhee’s minority conservative party and the Saenuri Party were announced on Thursday,
“(Ahn and Moon’s merger) is taking an undesirable approach, to achieve the target of gaining power or effecting a regime change,” Rhee said. He also said that Ahn and Moon could have no other reason than to wrest power from the conservatives for considering a merger.
“At the base of Ahn’s support is to completely reject old politics and the desire to revolutionize politics. But people who are within the old frame of the DUP are pressuring for unification using the same standards. This is not desirable.”
Those who are already within the ruling party similarly attacked the Ahn-Moon merger, and those who support the idea.
“These people have the record of helping Kwak No-hyun get elected as Seoul’s education superintendent under the banner of candidate unification,” Saenuri Party’s Rep. Suh Byung-soo said referring to the senior progressive figures who urged Ahn and Moon to collaborate.
According to sources, officials in the two camps have already been in contact regarding the issue.
While no official merger-related activity has taken place, even Ahn and his aides have been showing signs of warming to the idea despite their earlier position.
On Oct. 19, Ahn spoke up publicly on the issue for the first time saying “if unification occurs due to public demand, I will win there (the process of selecting the united candidate) and run to the end.”
Meanwhile, co-chair of Ahn’s election committee Rep. Song Ho-chang has stated, “The task is for the two candidates to put their strengths together before the candidate registration at the end of November.”
As Ahn’s camp creeps toward accepting the call to merge, Moon’s aides continued to take a more overt and active approach to bringing about the merger.
“Bold innovation is needed to realize the political wishes of the public. For this, we believe that a union of Ahn’s idealism and Moon’s experience must be achieved,” Rep. Jin Sung-joon, the spokesman for Moon’s campaign, said.
“We have suggested the formation of the joint political reform committee, and the offer still stands. If a committee is burdensome, beginning discussions with less formality is also possible.”
The pressure to merge their campaigns from outside the political arena is also rising.
On Thursday, a group of senior progressive figures including Seoul National University professor emeritus Paik Nak-chung, Father Ham Se-woong and Rev. Kim Sang-geun called for Ahn and Moon to “combine their strengths” when the official campaign period begins.
The announcement follows on the heels of a similar call from a group of 102 progressive arts and literary figures who said that the “unification (of Ahn and Moon’s candidacy) is the spirit of democracy and of the time” and that achieving regime change is the most important topic in the country.
As the progressives moved deeper into the campaign merger issue, conservatives stepped up their attack on both the merger and the two main opposition candidates.
Speaking on local radio, Rep. Rhee In-je of the Advancement and Unification Party disparaged the possible merger between Ahn and Moon as “collusion,” while referring to his and Saenuri parties’ planned merger as a “creative union.”
The plans to merge Rhee’s minority conservative party and the Saenuri Party were announced on Thursday,
“(Ahn and Moon’s merger) is taking an undesirable approach, to achieve the target of gaining power or effecting a regime change,” Rhee said. He also said that Ahn and Moon could have no other reason than to wrest power from the conservatives for considering a merger.
“At the base of Ahn’s support is to completely reject old politics and the desire to revolutionize politics. But people who are within the old frame of the DUP are pressuring for unification using the same standards. This is not desirable.”
Those who are already within the ruling party similarly attacked the Ahn-Moon merger, and those who support the idea.
“These people have the record of helping Kwak No-hyun get elected as Seoul’s education superintendent under the banner of candidate unification,” Saenuri Party’s Rep. Suh Byung-soo said referring to the senior progressive figures who urged Ahn and Moon to collaborate.
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