The camps of progressive presidential candidates Ahn Cheol-soo and Moon Jae-in are struggling to arrange the campaign merger, but the priorities of the two sides remained at odds two days into the negotiation Friday.

Democratic United Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in and his camp are turning up the pressure to pick the method of single candidate selection, the focus of Ahn’s camp remains on the fundamentals of the agreement to form the coalition.

Moon’s aides, despite the candidate’s earlier reports that Moon was willing to make significant concessions, are upping the pressure on Ahn with regards to the candidate selection method.

“What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of selecting a candidate or a public official? It is selection by voting,” chief of Moon’s strategy planning Rhee Mok-hee told local media on Thursday.

“Having weaker organization is part of Ahn. Even if (Ahn’s side) gets greedy for gains in the process, (they) should accept the principles.” 

For Ahn, who does not have an extensive party network behind him, preliminaries are considered to present significant disadvantages. As such, the former academic’s camp is said to prefer an opinion poll as the selection method.

Moon and the DUP, on the other hand, are of the opposite position. In addition, there have been objections to the opinion poll that argue that the will of the large number of DUP members who took part in the party’s preliminaries will be ignored if Ahn is selected based on the result of an opinon poll.

The disparity between the importance the two sides place on conducting the candidate selection process in quick order was apparent even in the negotiations for the joint political reform statement.

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 before the team’s first meeting got under way Thursday morning.

“(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.

While his aides increased the pressure on Ahn’s side, Moon continued to focus on the ultimate goal the he and Ahn aim to achieve through the merger.

“(Candidate) unification is required even only to expand the presence of the reformists, and (he and Ahn) should work together to garner support even after unification,” Moon said during his visit to Chosun University in Gwangju.

“To do this, the right thing to do is to engage in the process after letting go of all greed and privileges, with the priorities set only on the public.”

But he did express concern about the timetable, saying that the two sides collide over details and that the process requires time.

On Thursday, Moon suggested a four-step road map to facilitate a quicker, smoother merger.

According to Moon’s proposals, 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 devise the candidate selection method. Both Ahn and Moon are set to reveal their full policy plans Sunday.

As Moon toured various locations Gwangju, the traditional stronghold of the DUP, Ahn met the leaders of the country’s two main umbrella labor unions ― the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions ― to garner support.

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