Democratic United Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in on Thursday suggested a four-step road map for his campaign merger with independent Ahn Cheol-soo.

Moon put forward the road map at a meeting of provincial election committee chairpersons, stressing the need to carry out the steps smoothly and in an orderly fashion.

According to Moon’s proposed plans, the two sides would make the joint political reform declaration then reveal their respective policy plans. They would then announce shared values and policies, and then draw up the candidate selection method.

On Tuesday, the two candidates agreed to merge and to run a single candidacy for the Dec. 19 election, the first step of which will be issuing a joint declaration on political reform.

“(After the joint declaration and the candidates’ policies are announced) presenting the public with the shared policies and values and suggesting the (candidate) unification method must be conducted smoothly and at appropriate intervals,” Moon said.

With both Ahn and Moon scheduled to announce their policy plans on Sunday, their negotiators have less than two days to conclude the process if things are to go according to Moon’s timetable.

Although Moon’s side had expected the joint declaration to take at most three days even before the negotiation teams were put together, the process may not be as smooth with the representatives of the two sides appearing to have different priorities.

While Moon’s chief representative on the issue professor Jung Hae-gu of Sungkonghoe University stressed the need to begin the candidate selection process as soon as possible, Ahn’s chief negotiator Kim Song-sik’s focus remained on political reform.

“(I) believe that administration change can only be achieved when political reform is achieved properly. (And that) victorious unification and a coalition for the future can be established,” Kim said.

The team, however, did agree on four items -- the need for new politics and direction of change, tasks for political and party reform, direction the coalition should take and matters regarding the implementation of reform measures.

With regards to the candidate selection method, Moon is reported to be willing to make significant concessions to Ahn.

As Moon has a much larger network at his command, it is widely considered to be favorable to the DUP candidate if conventional primary rules are applied, while Ahn’s side is said to prefer opinion polls.

As for voting hour extension, the two camps brought together highest-level campaign officials to oversee the efforts.

The team, led by the co-chairs of Moon’s election committee Lee In-young and Kim Young-kyung and co-chair of Ahn’s campaign committee Song Ho-chang, will conduct various programs to gather public support for the cause and organize events attended by both Ahn and Moon to increase pressure on the Saenuri Party.

Although the merger has a long way to go, Thursday’s announcement appears to be having an effect favorable to Moon.

According to the research firm Realmeter, the approval rating for Moon as the unified progressive candidate came in at 42.4 percent on Wednesday, rising 1.4 percentage point from the previous day. In contrast, the figure for Ahn fell 0.8 percentage point to come in at 39.7 percent.

In a three-way race with the Saenuri Party’s Park Geun-hye, both and Ahn and Moon made more progress than the conservative candidate.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Park’s rating saw a 0.1 percentage point rise, while Ahn and Moon, respectively, saw their figures rise by 0.6 percentage point and 0.2 percentage point.


By Choi He-suk
(cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)