Park ties with Ahn, Moon in hypothetical match-ups


The race for next presidency is turning into a dead heat, with the conservative ruling party’s long-time frontrunner slumping to a tie with her two liberal contenders, latest polls showed Sunday.

According to the Oct. 4-5 poll by Gallup Korea, Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri Party tied in hypothetical two-way races with her main rivals -― independent Ahn Cheol-soo and Moon Jae-in of the liberal opposition Democratic United Party.

The supposed Park-Ahn and Park-Moon match-ups both result in a tie of 47:47, it said. 

In a multi-way race, Park garnered most support at 40 percent, followed by Ahn at 26 percent and Moon at 24 percent. It is widely expected that Ahn and Moon, both liberals by political identity, would unify candidacy against Park.

Other polls showed a similar trend: a tighter contest amongst the three.

Moving past the Chuseok thanksgiving holiday, a crucial juncture in the run up to the December election, Park appears to be bouncing back slightly from a lengthy slump, political watchers said. Meanwhile, Ahn is stagnating after a surge from the announcement of his bid and Moon is continuing a steady rise in popularity.

“It is too early to make predictions on the race, because a lot has yet to be played out, including as the potential candidacy unification between Ahn and Moon,” a political analyst was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.

With the race turning into a nail-biter, the candidates sped up campaign efforts Sunday.

While Ahn unveiled his policy platform, Moon traveled to Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, where a chemical factory explosion late last month killed five and prompted public health fears.

On the conservative side, a growing sense of crisis forced the candidate’s chief secretary to resign.

Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan, a long-time confidant of Park, offered to step down from his post in the camp, after some party members called for a revamp of her campaign team.

Separate from his departure, Park’s secretarial team will soon be scaled down to seven from the current 10, with its functions and responsibilities significantly reduced, sources at the camp said.

Demands have been growing that Park’s old allies should retreat from the forefront of the election battle and allow a fresh start for her campaign.

Meanwhile, Park continued efforts to consolidate her support within and beyond Saenuri, by bringing star figures into her soon-to-be-formed election committee.

As part of such efforts, she met on Saturday with Chung Mong-joon, one of her most vocal critics and former contenders in the party’s nomination race.

In their 20-minute closed-door meeting, Park asked for his help in the election and Chung responded by saying: “I will think about how I can help you.”

On the liberal side, Moon is preparing to lay out his vision for political reforms in a bid to reach out to voters who have become disillusioned with politics.

Political reforms are expected to be placed high on the agenda as he seeks alliance with Ahn, a doctor, venture entrepreneur and professor-turned-candidate backed by voters dissatisfied with conservative and liberal parties alike.

Moon’s ideas for new politics center on reduced presidential powers and more responsible partisan politics, sources said.

In an interview with Yonhap News in July, Moon said he favored a parliamentary system over the current presidential government system.

“If the presidential system is to stay, we need to think about the introduction of a two-term, four-year presidency,” he has said.

Korean presidents are limited by law to a single five-year term. Pushes for a constitutional amendment to change it have been repeatedly bogged down by partisan wrangling and divided public opinions.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)