Leading presidential hopeful Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea has made his phone number public in a bid to receive feedback from voters on his election pledges.

He is the first presidential aspirant to do so. Moon said through a Facebook post that he will use the opportunity to reflect the views of citizens as much as he can. 

“The upcoming presidential election signifies a meeting of prepared citizens and a prepared candidate,” Moon said in the online post. “I will start a new campaign, in which citizens make my election pledges.”

The text messages citizens send are posted on Moon’s election campaign website.

Moon’s strategy manager Jeon Byung-heon said that it was the first campaign method to link mobile phones and the internet.

“Previous campaign efforts were focused on social media sites, which limited the participants to the young generation. The older generation and the elders can now directly be involved by giving us text messages,” Jeon told a news briefing.

In a move to stand out from his rivals, Moon has also asked voters to take part in writing the announcement for his presidential bid.

Instead of holding a big ceremony for the declaration of his candidacy, Moon on Thursday will release three videos via media outlets and online channels. Moon had previously gathered citizen volunteers to participate in writing the statement.

Moon’s election camp said the video features citizens from all walks of life appearing alongside the presidential aspirant.

Running for presidency for the second time, the former party leader is currently leading the race with the highest support rating in local polls.

In Monday’s poll by Realmeter, Moon beat other contenders with 36.6 percent, followed by South Chungcheong Province Gov. An Hee-jung of the same party with 15.6 percent. Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung of the same party posted 10.8 percent while South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Hong Joon-pyo of the conservative Liberty Korea Party, stood at 9.8 percent.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)