Rep. Moon Jae-in won the main opposition Democratic United Party’s presidential
nomination Sunday after three weeks of controversial primaries.
He faces a possible contest with professor Ahn Cheol-soo who is expected to announce his presidential bid this week.
The political liberals look to unify a Moon-Ahn candidacy to run against Rep. Park Geun-hye of the conservative ruling Saenuri Party.
“My victory today is based on the past history written by former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun,” Roh’s former chief-of-staff said in his acceptance speech.
“I will return the party members’ support by winning in the December election.”
In the DUP’s 13th and final regional vote in Seoul on the day, Moon once again took the lead over his three rivals ― Sohn Hak-kyu, Kim Doo-kwan and Rep. Chung Sye-kyun ― with 60.61 percent of the votes.
Rep. Moon avoided a run-off contest with the closest runner-up Sohn, as his average polls reached 56.62 percent in the 13 rounds.
The DUP’s candidates agreed back in July to accept a run-off election, in case none of them manage to win over 50 percent of the total.
Moon pledged to launch an election committee to embrace all in-party factions, as well as liberal civic groups.
Moon had trailed Ahn in polls until last week when he narrowly outstripped the former software business guru in a survey thanks to his consecutive victories in the DUP primaries.
Ahn recently made a series of political gestures that strongly indicated his will to run in the December presidential election.
He had a closed-door meeting with Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, his political ally, on Friday. He also made a surprise visit to the May 18 National Cemetery in Gwangju on Saturday.
Another concern for Moon is the factional feud in the DUP which has worsened during the primaries.
The DUP had pledged to display a clear contrast to the Saenuri’s primary in which frontrunner Park won an easy victory, but this plan went astray.
Moon’s challengers in the in-house election claimed that the party’s leadership favored him from the onset in a collusion of the two biggest factions ― the pro-Roh Moo-hyun group led by party leader Lee Hae-chan and pro-Kim Dae-jung group led by floor leader Park Jie-won. They alleged that mobile voting was skewed to the advantage of Moon.
By Bae Hyun-jung
(tellme@heraldcorp.com)
He faces a possible contest with professor Ahn Cheol-soo who is expected to announce his presidential bid this week.
The political liberals look to unify a Moon-Ahn candidacy to run against Rep. Park Geun-hye of the conservative ruling Saenuri Party.
“My victory today is based on the past history written by former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun,” Roh’s former chief-of-staff said in his acceptance speech.
“I will return the party members’ support by winning in the December election.”
 |
| Rep. Moon Jae-in of the opposition Democratic United party gestures after winning its presidential nomination Sunday. (Ahn hoon/The Korea Herald) |
In the DUP’s 13th and final regional vote in Seoul on the day, Moon once again took the lead over his three rivals ― Sohn Hak-kyu, Kim Doo-kwan and Rep. Chung Sye-kyun ― with 60.61 percent of the votes.
Rep. Moon avoided a run-off contest with the closest runner-up Sohn, as his average polls reached 56.62 percent in the 13 rounds.
The DUP’s candidates agreed back in July to accept a run-off election, in case none of them manage to win over 50 percent of the total.
Moon pledged to launch an election committee to embrace all in-party factions, as well as liberal civic groups.
Moon had trailed Ahn in polls until last week when he narrowly outstripped the former software business guru in a survey thanks to his consecutive victories in the DUP primaries.
Ahn recently made a series of political gestures that strongly indicated his will to run in the December presidential election.
He had a closed-door meeting with Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, his political ally, on Friday. He also made a surprise visit to the May 18 National Cemetery in Gwangju on Saturday.
Another concern for Moon is the factional feud in the DUP which has worsened during the primaries.
The DUP had pledged to display a clear contrast to the Saenuri’s primary in which frontrunner Park won an easy victory, but this plan went astray.
Moon’s challengers in the in-house election claimed that the party’s leadership favored him from the onset in a collusion of the two biggest factions ― the pro-Roh Moo-hyun group led by party leader Lee Hae-chan and pro-Kim Dae-jung group led by floor leader Park Jie-won. They alleged that mobile voting was skewed to the advantage of Moon.
By Bae Hyun-jung
(tellme@heraldcorp.com)
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