Yoon, Ahn agree to unify candidacies

Mar 04, 2022, 09:30 am

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Main opposition People Power Party’s presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and the minor opposition People's Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo raise their hands after announcing the merger of their presidential election campaigns during a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on March 3, 2022./ Photographed by Lee Byung-hwa

AsiaToday reporter Lee Wook-jae

Main opposition People Power Party (PPP) presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and the minor opposition People's Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo announced Thursday unification of their candidacies. Political analysts say the announcement is a good sign for Yoon’s regime change initiative as he gained support from Ahn amid a fierce neck-and-neck competition with the ruling Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung.

Yoon and Ahn held a joint press conference at the National Assembly where they announced a “joint declaration of unification towards fairness and common sense, unity and the future.”

The surprise announcement came four days after Yoon said Ahn had notified him of a collapse in negotiations to field a single candidate. As a result, the election will a three-way race, including Sim Sang-jung of the minor opposition Justice Party. Besides, as Ahn reported his withdrawal to the National Election Commission (NEC) on Thursday afternoon, he will be marked as a withdrawn candidate on the ballots for early voting, which takes place on Friday and Saturday.

“Both of us agreed to combine our minds for a regime change as the beginning of making a better Republic of Korea, that is, for a better change of the government,” the two said in a joint declaration. “We are one team.”

“Today, the government we are trying to create together in response to the public will of regime change is a future-oriented and reforming ‘national unified government’,” they said. “The national unified government will be the first step beyond the politics of winner monopoly, hatred and exclusion, and division, which are chronic diseases of Korean politics since democratization in 1987.”

Advocating the future-oriented, reforming, pragmatic, quarantined and integrated government, the two said, “We will move forward looking to the future, not the past. It is more important to create and implement government tasks for the future, rather than regressive government operations such as rooting out corruption. Even if it’s a burden on the government, we will responsibly carry out the reform tasks necessary for the future and sustainability of the people and the country. Even if it was the policy promoted by the previous government, we will continue to promote policies that are necessary at the national level.”

They also stated that they are planning to merge their two parties after the election.

Attention is now focused on how the merger will affect Yoon’s ratings, which has taken place six days ahead of the presidential election. As the election law bans publishing polling results starting today, it is difficult to predict the change the merger will bring. However, political observers say Yoon may be slightly closer to the election victory as the public opinion for a regime change was completely focused on Yoon.

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