It was set to be a ceremony officially marking the end of the presidential campaign of Ahn Cheol-soo that endured for 66 days.

But as it unfolded on Monday afternoon at the sixth floor of his campaign headquarters in central Seoul, not too far from Cheong Wa Dae, it appeared more like a ceremony marking the start of yet another journey.

“I do not really know what to call him,” said Jeong Yeon-soon, Ahn’s former spokeswoman, 20 minutes before the former independent presidential hopeful was to show up. “So I will just continue to refer to him as candidate Ahn.”

Hundreds of journalists and citizens had gathered. Several dozen foldout chairs were propped up in front of the podium. The seating arrangement was not defined by social status. Ordinary citizens, campaign volunteers and former high-ranking campaign officials all sat together. Several hundred more stood by, watching.

The ceremony started with a video of images recapping the journey the former Seoul National University professor undertook in autumn, from the visits to the traditional marketplace to meetings with college students.

Afterwards, as Ahn sat on a foldout chair in the front row, two campaign volunteers each took to the podium, and recounted what Ahn’s campaign has meant for them.

“For the past five years, whenever I looked at my children, I always felt sorry and my heart ached. No matter how many times I thought about it, the future of my children looked so bleak,” said Ha Yoon-hee, who worked at the campaign call center, and picked up calls, listening to just about anybody and everybody who phoned in.

“In our society today, the economy, a sense of justice and even humaneness are on a rapid decline. The life that my children would live 20 years from now appeared to be much more tragic than it is now.”

Afterwards, another video with clips from dozens of interviews with campaign volunteers aired. The interviews were filmed after Ahn announced his withdrawal from the race in late October. The volunteers took turns describing how they felt about the campaign.

“Looking back at the journey so far, I have incurred a debt to all of you that I will never be able to pay back,” said Ahn when he finally took the stage. “To all those campaign volunteers who put aside their jobs to take upon cumbersome tasks (of my campaign), for the past 66 days, it was you who was Ahn Cheol-soo.”

Ahn reiterated the pledge he made during his previous press conference announcing his withdrawal from the race to help the campaign of Democratic United Party’s nominee Moon Jae-in, and asked his supporters to join him in his support of his formal rival.

But what made the crowd erupt in applause and howls of agreement was something else. After urging support for Moon, Ahn noted that the ongoing election was headed in the wrong direction.

“The present presidential election is on a reverse path. It is on the opposite path to the one that the people yearn for. There is no new mindset for new politics, only obsession and fights with the past,” said Ahn.

“A new future cannot be expected if the politics of division and unilateral governing repeat themselves.”

For many of the supporters and campaign volunteers who had gathered, the end of Ahn’s farewell speech only marked a new beginning.

“Today marks the official end of the jinsim camp,” said Ahn, referring to the name of his camp that means sincerity or truthfulness in Korean. “But today’s departure is not an end but a new beginning.”

By Samuel Songhoon Lee (songhoon@heraldcorp.com)