Former independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo came under growing pressure to provide full support for Moon Jae-in to revive the momentum for the Democratic United Party’s campaign.

Officials from Ahn’s now defunct campaign office said he will be more proactive in supporting Moon’s campaign as the DUP candidate trails frontrunner Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri Party in the Dec. 19 election.

Two major groups of experts and a regional organization formed in support of Ahn declared their endorsement of Moon on Wednesday.

Since quitting the race in favor of Moon on Nov. 23, Ahn had remained out of the limelight for the most part saying only that Moon was the unified candidate and asking his supporters to accept his will.

While the former academic was anticipated to take a more active approach in supporting Moon in disbanding his election camp on Monday, he had only repeated his earlier statement inciting contrasting interpretations from the DUP and the Saenuri Party.

With Ahn remaining relatively inactive, Moon’s approval ratings have slipped significantly with some survey results showing the DUP candidate lagging behind Park by more than 10 percentage points.

However, the polls show that gap is likely to be narrowed significantly or even be turned in favor of Moon with Ahn’s support.

With a more active role expected to be taken by Ahn, which many in the DUP camp consider vital for victory, the progressive bloc is hoping to turn the tables on the conservative candidate with only two weeks to go until the ballots are cast.

The details about how Ahn will go about whipping up support for the DUP candidate remains unclear, but speculations have risen that the former candidate could begin by joining Moon on the tour of universities around Seoul.

In addition to Ahn, a number of organizations that had supported the former candidate have moved over to Moon, saying that their efforts would otherwise be wasted since Ahn has quit the race.

For his part, Moon has been laying the grounds for Ahn to launch a support campaign. Speaking at his campaign headquarters, Moon said that he will bring into effect the contents of the joint new politics declaration issued with Ahn on Nov. 18 when the two sides had been negotiating the merger.

The “new politics” the two candidates have called for from the outset was central to their partnership.

In addition, Moon also called on his aides to refrain from negative propaganda in an apparent move to appease Ahn’s criticism of the tactic.

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