Independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo’s aides on Monday appeared his most positive yet toward the proposed unification of candidacy with the main opposition Democratic United Party’s Rep. Moon Jae-in.

“It is the basic principle of candidate Ahn to leave the decision (on candidacy unification) to the people,” said spokesperson Yoo Min-young on Monday.

With only a month left for candidate registration, pressure has been mounting for Ahn to ally with Moon, so as to not split the liberal vote in their competition with Saenuri Party nominee Park Geun-hye.

Keum Tae-sup, chief of the Ahn camp’s situation room, and Park Sun-sook, a co-chief of the campaign office, also said the merger would be decided by the people.

“If the people call for a unifying process, Ahn will accede to it and win (the left-wing’s sole candidacy),” said Park.

Though all remained cautious over the details, their comments displayed a shift from their previous reserved stance over the issue. So far, Ahn and his key officials have claimed that unification talks were premature.

Song Ho-chang, former DUP lawmaker and another co-chief of the camp, took a step further and said that Ahn and Moon should unify by the official candidate registration on Nov. 25-26.

“There is no doubt that we have to collaborate with the DUP and the entire opposition camp,” Song said in a radio interview on Sunday.

“In that sense, candidacy unification is an essential prerequisite.”

Keum, however, said that Song’s decisive words did not represent the official stance of the election camp, keeping his guard against rampant speculations.

“It is not yet the right time to discuss the detailed methods and timeline concerning the left-wing’s candidacy unification,” Keum said.

The DUP and its candidate Moon also readied themselves for the possible dual race.

According to the survey conducted by local pollster Realmeter over the weekend, Moon closely caught up with Ahn within the margin of error. He won 37.4 percent of the respondents’ votes, coming close to Ahn’s 40 percent.

The candidate nevertheless expressed concerns on the tight competition.

“I felt that Ahn intends to take his own line up to the end,” he was quoted as saying over a dinner with some of the party’s lawmakers on Sunday.

“Candidacy unification will not be easy. It may even be more difficult than the actual election.”

The DUP figure, however, also claimed to have an upper hand over his non-party rival, stressing his advantage as a party-based candidate.

“I do not think that Ahn may win the final round (against the ruling Saenuri Party’s Rep. Park Geun-hye),” he said.

A local daily reported that Ahn plans to run the presidential race as independent candidate and create a new political party after being elected but Ahn’s campaign officials flatly denied the rumors.

“No discussions whatsoever have been made on the issue of creating a new party,” said spokesperson Yoo.

While both camps tussled over the merger, novelist Hwang Suk-young and 101 key figures in the artistic, academic and religious circles urged the two candidates to speed up their merger talks.

“The most important task is to change the current regime and for this, we support both Moon and Ahn,” they said in a statement on Monday.

They also demanded that the two form a joint body to seek political reform and candidacy unification.

“The opposition camp has remained divided ever since it failed to unify its candidacy back in 1987,” they said.

“Such faults should never take place again.”

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)