No deal: Kim (right) talking with Han during a meeting in Seoul. — AP
THE country’s embattled conservative party cancelled then reinstated the presidential candidacy of Kim Moon-soo within hours as internal turmoil escalated ahead of the June 3 election.
Saturday’s chaotic U-turn, after a failed attempt to replace Kim with former prime minister Han Duck-soo, underscored the People Power Party’s leadership crisis following the ouster of former President Yoon Suk-yeol over his martial law imposition in December, which possibly doomed the conservatives’ chances of winning another term in government.
Kim, a staunch conservative and former labour minister under Yoon, was named the PPP’s presidential candidate on May 3 after winning 56.3% of the primary vote, defeating a reformist rival who had criticised Yoon’s martial law. But the PPP’s leadership, dominated by Yoon loyalists, had spent the past week desperately pressuring Kim to step aside and back Han, whom they believed stood a stronger chance against liberal Democratic Party frontrunner Lee Jae-myung.
After talks between Han and Kim failed to unify their candidacies, the PPP’s emergency committee took the unprecedented step early Saturday of nullifying its primary, cancelling Kim’s nomination and registering Han as both a party member and its new presidential candidate. However, the replacement required approval through an all-party vote conducted through an automated phone survey, which ultimately rejected the switch on Saturday night.
Kim, who had denounced the party’s attempt to replace him as an “overnight political coup,” was immediately reinstated as the candidate and planned to officially register with election authorities yesterday, according to the party.
“Now everything will return to its rightful place,” Kim said in a statement.
Kim, 73, was a prominent labour activist in the 1970s and 80s, but joined a conservative party in the 1990s, saying he gave up his dream of becoming a “revolutionist” after witnessing the collapse of communist states. Since then, he has served eight years as governor of South Korea’s Gyeonggi province and completed three terms in the National Assembly.
Han served as acting president after Yoon was impeached by the legislature in December and officially removed by the Constitutional Court in April. He resigned from office May 2 to pursue a presidential bid.
Han and Kim have lagged well behind Lee in recent opinion polls. Lee had spearheaded the Democrats’ efforts to oust Yoon. — AP
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