The talks for a single opposition candidacy got off to a rough start Monday with the campaigns trumpeting their own advantages in the December presidential race.

The main opposition Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo named the members of their negotiating teams which would set the rules for their competition to become the preferred candidate.

As the negotiations began, Moon’s camp stressed that his approval ratings have been on the rise since they announced an agreement to merge their campaigns last week.

“The rising support for Moon since the agreement reflects the fact that the voters are paying attention to his stability and appropriateness as the presidential candidate,” said Woo Sang-ho, public relations chief of the Moon campaign.

Ahn’s side underscored that he has been constantly outpolling Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri Party in hypothetical two-way match-ups.

“It is necessary to field a candidate who can beat Saenuri’s Park. It is not in question that Ahn is a competitive contender,” said Song Ho-chang, a co-chief of the Ahn campaign.

Moon organized a team of incumbent lawmakers, putting emphasis on political communication skills. Third-term lawmaker and chairperson of the parliamentary judiciary and legislation committee Park Young-sun is to take the lead, with the support of Reps. Yun Ho-jung and Kim Ki-sik.

Park and Yun played a crucial role in forming the left-wing unity back in the 2010 local elections and in this year’s general elections, respectively.

Independent candidate Ahn, in contrast to widespread speculations, entrusted the task to chief secretary Cho Kwang-hee, together with Keum Tae-sup and Lee Tae-kyu, excluding former DUP lawmakers from the round table.

“This is to be an open-minded discussion, not a political negotiation,” said Park Sun-sook, co-head of Ahn’s election headquarters.

“One cannot know whether (political) experiences will be beneficial or harmful (to the talks).”

Former DUP secretary-general Park was widely speculated to head Ahn’s three-member team, as a counterpart to Rep. Park of Moon’s camp.

As less than two weeks now remain up to the official candidate registration, both camps agree that the merger talks must accelerate.

They displayed different stances, however, on the specific method of candidate selection and the given timeline.

Moon prefers to include mobile votes or other means to reflect the allegiance of DUP loyalists, whereas political rookie Ahn remained reserved on the details.

“We are to take caution on every word or action until a certain level of consensus is reached, as not all of Ahn’s supporters approve of the candidacy unification,” said Park.

Moon likewise refrained from pressing Ahn further but urged his party to place top priority on the ongoing merger talks.

“If we succeed in striking a deal (on the merger rules) by this Saturday, we may then have the time to include mobile voting (in the Moon-Ahn preliminary),” said an official of Moon’s camp.

The two rivals also tacitly competed to grab the initiative in the two-way race, and eventually to win the sole candidacy.

“Let us boldly spur (the negotiations) without quibbling over political merits and demerits,” Rep. Moon said Monday at the party’s election committee meeting.

“As long as the general flow remains within the range of our principles, we should move on and wrap up (the ongoing talks).”

The DUP candidate’s free-handed attitude also reflected his confidence, boosted by his recent rise in public polls, observers noted.

Ahn, on the other hand, sought to win over the initiative from Moon and the DUP by presenting a series of unexpected agenda items, such as cutting election campaigning costs by up to 50 percent.

“Ahn continues to place new issues on the round table in an aim to win the lead in the talks, and Moon seems to be losing his pace,” said Shin Yul, politics professor at Myongji University.

“Moon, however, may but remain discreet and humble in the two-way communication as he may easily be pictured as abusing his power as the party-affiliated candidate.”

An official of Moon’s camp, on the other hand, refuted that Ahn stepped into the political frame of the DUP by finally getting down to the long-awaited candidacy unification talk.

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