Justice Party presidential candidate halts all activities, campaign team disbands

Jan 14, 2022, 08:31 am

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Presidential candidate Sim Sang-jung of minor progressive Justice Party speaks during a debate held in National Assembly on Dec. 22, 2021./ Photographed by Lee Byung-hwa

AsiaToday reporter Jeong Geum-min

All members of the campaign team for presidential campaign Sim Sang-jung of the minor progressive Justice Party resigned Thursday, following Sim’s decision to halt all campaign activities the day before. The move comes amid Sim’s low support rating and difficulty of unifying all progressive forces.

“The campaign chief and committee members decided to resign, as they see the current election campaign situation seriously,” said Lee Dong-young, chief spokesperson of the party’s election committee.

Justice Party chief Yeo Young-kug visited Sim’s office at the National Assembly and held a meeting with chief spokesperson Lee and the party’s policy committee chief Jang Hye-young to make the final decision.

Sim has put off all campaigning activities and cut off contact with the party members since late Wednesday. The party election committee said Sim will take time for deliberation as the situation was grave.

It remains uncertain how long Sim would suspend her activities. All of her activities, including the party delegation and legislative council meeting and YouTube broadcast, have been temporarily halted.

Her decision comes amid the low support rating, which has not rebounded ahead of the upcoming presidential election. According to the recent survey by Hangil Research, Sim earned just a 2.2 percent support rating, which is 1 percentage point lower than Huk Kyung-young, a cult leader and a presidential nominee of the National Revolutionary Party. The poll, commissioned by Kukinews, was conducted from Saturday to Monday to 1,014 adults.

It seems difficult to reverse the mood through TV debates with presidential candidates since she has virtually no competitive ‘content’.

Besides, the party failed to unify candidates from the labor and progressive forces, including Progressive Party, Labor Party, Green Party, and Socialist Revolutionary Workers’ Party.

The party officials said that Sim is not at this time considering dropping from the election or unifying with a candidate from another party.

“The party will respect the candidate’s judgment no matter what decision she makes,” Yeo said. “The candidate has said several times that running for president is her ultimate responsibility. In that regard, I trust her.”

#Justice Party #Sim Sang-jung