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| Yoon Suk-yeol, left, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), and Lee Jun-seok, chairman of the party, embrace during a meeting of party lawmakers at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap |
Ahn Cheol-soo establishes himself as 'strong' 3rd candidate
By Jung Da-min
The restored cooperation between main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP) presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok over election strategies is not likely to provide an immediate impetus for Yoon and his election camp to regain public trust and shore up his support rate, according to political watchers, Friday.
Yoon's approval ratings had topped many opinion polls of presidential candidates until late November, as he was enjoying a post-convention bounce since his election as the PPP candidate in early November. But Yoon's popularity started to fade due to various factors, including internal feuds among members of his election camp as well as allegations of his wife's false credentials in applying for lecturing posts at colleges.
In particular, the conflicts between Yoon and Lee over election strategies, which had started even before the launch of Yoon's election committee in early December, only continued to rise, adding to the drop in Yoon's popularity.
Before the launch of the election committee, Lee had boycotted scheduled campaign events in protest against being excluded from the decision-making processes of the campaign committee. Lee and Yoon managed to resolve their differences when launching the election committee, with Lee assuming the post of co-chairman, but he resigned from the post on Dec. 21, citing the same reasons. Then the two again vowed to work together at a party meeting, Friday, for the party's victory in the presidential election slated for March 9.
Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said he sees there still remains a high possibility that similar conflicts could occur in Yoon's election camp.
"Yoon and Lee did not come to a reconciliation with each other but just patched up their conflicts for their own political ends," Shin said.
Political commentator Lee Jong-hoon said the fundamental problem is with Yoon's leadership, as he not only failed to win support from the public by not making a proper apology for the accusations against his wife, but also failed to resolve the internal feuds among members of his election camp.
"When Yoon's approval rating was decreasing over his inappropriate handling of the accusations against his wife, Kim Chong-in, then-chairman of Yoon's election committee, tried to tighten his grip on the election committee's operations, while also calling for Yoon to follow directions made by the committee. But Yoon did not listen to Kim's advice and let Kim resign from the chairman post," the commentator said, referring to Yoon's decision made Wednesday to reform his election camp. Following Kim's resignation, Yoon appointed four-term lawmaker Rep. Kwon Young-se as the new leader of his election camp.
"As for major elections such as the presidential election, candidates must follow directions and strategies made by their election camps, but Yoon has failed to do so," commentator Lee said.
While the PPP and its election committee are failing to find a breakthrough in winning back public support for Yoon, the approval rating of Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate and leader of the minor opposition conservative People's Party has been rising in recent weeks.
According to a survey of 1,002 adults on their preferential presidential candidates conducted from Jan. 4 to 6 by local pollster Gallup Korea, 15 percent of the respondents said they support Ahn, up 10 percentage points from the previous poll conducted in mid-December, while Yoon's support rate decreased to 26 percent from the previous 35 percent. Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) topped both polls with 36 percent support in each.
"It remains to be seen over the following few weeks, but I think it is highly likely that Ahn's support rate will continue to rise, especially seeing his high support rate among voters in Gwangju and the South and North Jeolla provinces, where he had also enjoyed a high popularity in his first presidential bid in 2017," Shin said.
In the latest Gallup survey, Ahn's support rate in the southwestern region was 15 percent, while that of Yoon was 7 percent. Lee's popularity in the region recorded 65 percent in the same survey. Further details are available at the websites of the survey agency and the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
