DUP’s inconvenient truth

Ahn Cheol-soo

“Why now?” A campaign strategist working for Rep. Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) expressed annoyance about the timing of the announcement from Ahn Cheol-soo’s political camp, that he will soon make his decision on whether to make a bid for the presidency.

Asking for anonymity because he was forbidden to speak to the media, the DUP strategist complained that Ahn’s side made their major announcement when the DUP frontrunner was gaining momentum in the primary race. It was apparent, he observed, that the announcement from Ahn’s team was intended to steal the political limelight from Moon, he said.

On Tuesday, Yoo Min-young, a spokesman for Ahn, told reporters through a text message that the founder of computer virus vaccine provider AhnLab will announce his decision on a presidential bid days after the DUP primary.

The main opposition party is scheduled to pick its presidential candidate this Sunday. If Moon fails to garner 50 percent or more support, he will have to compete with the No. 2 hopeful in a run-off election which will come a week after the DUP’s Seoul primary race ends.

The announcement came as the Moon camp was celebrating poll results that showed the DUP frontrunner was ahead of the popular Seoul National University (SNU) professor for the first time in a hypothetical two-way race.

Moon was ahead of Ahn within a margin of error in a survey released Tuesday. Moreover, the gap between the two widened Wednesday, according to another poll.

The Realmeter poll found that the gap between Moon and Ahn became wider as the former presidential chief of staff distanced himself from the SNU professor by 9 percentage points.

Despite the rising support, strategists of the Moon camp and even Rep. Moon himself know that Ahn’s endorsement of the former presidential chief of staff as the next president is vital to win the December presidential election.

The chances of Rep. Moon winning the presidential poll without Ahn’s support are dim, given that the gap between his support and that of Rep. Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party is too wide.

The IT mogul has made major announcements whenever the DUP frontrunner has appeared to gain momentum in the race and his support showed signs of going up.

In July, a book about Ahn titled “Ahn Cheol-soo’s Thoughts” was released. Ahn stole the show back then when support for Rep. Moon rose slightly and his rating was higher than that of Ahn in a hypothetical three-way race.

Support for Moon fell sharply after the popular talk show “Healing Camp” aired an interview with Ahn. Some backers of Moon switched their support because they believed Ahn’s electability appeared to be higher, pollsters said.

It took time for Moon to regain support. His ratings rose slowly and gradually as Ahn stayed mum on whether or not he would enter the presidential race.

Another turn was made last week after Keum Tae-sup, a lawyer working for Ahn, disclosed that a media relations officer to the Park camp threatened to blackmail the SNU professor if he joined the presidential race. Ahn stole the show again, leaving Moon on the sidelines.

Before the disclosure, Moon was gaining momentum as he garnered 48.5 percent of support in the primaries and raised the possibility that he might not need to compete in a run-off election. <The Korea Times/Kang Hyun-kyung>

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