Looming uncertainty

Single candidacy must be completed soon

With barely 50 days to go before the Dec. 19 presidential election, a mountain of uncertainty looms large. That’s largely because the main standard-bearer of the opposition camp has not been determined yet.

Moon Jae-in, the candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), is in a position to hasten the process of unifying the opposition candidate as soon as possible, given the pressing schedule ― Nov. 25-26 is the registration period. Moon’s campaign, which is reportedly in favor of a primary to be participated by voters, believes that at least two weeks are needed to complete the process. For this reason, Moon’s supporters claim that negotiations to unify the candidacy should begin next week at the latest.

By contrast, independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo sympathizes with the need for a single candidate but says there is no need to be hasty about it. Ahn’s camp appears to believe that it would be advantageous to shelve the candidate unification as late as possible, considering that Ahn, the software mogul-turned-politician, has a greater possibility of expanding his support base than Moon, the human rights lawyer-turned-politician.

In fact, the tug-of-war between the two liberal contenders is reaching a critical stage, as leading opposition figures from various walks of life urge them to unify their candidacy as early as possible to retake power from the ruling Saenuri Party. But most political observers say that the single candidacy will be achieved right before the registration period.

It’s regrettable that the issue of candidate unification dominates the presidential election at a time when debates on policies and the suitability of candidates should become the talk of the day.

Previous presidential elections, especially those held in 1997 and 2002, were also affected profoundly by the single candidacy question, but it appears nonsensical that candidates from different parties with different political convictions seek a single candidacy only to take power.

In this respect, we feel it necessary for the nation to seriously consider introducing the presidential runoff system. If the runoff is introduced, all candidates would run for the presidency freely and in the event that none wins a majority, voters could cast ballots to pick a president in the runoff.

It defies understanding that there has not been a single TV debate among the three major candidates, including the ruling party’s Park Geun-hye, with less than 50 days left before the presidential poll.

Most worrisome is that voters are deprived of opportunities to compare the contenders and have a full grasp of their policies and campaign pledges in earnest. They are crisscrossing the country while making sugar-coated pledges that lack action plans and financing methods. Therefore, Moon and Ahn need to finalize their negotiations to pick a single candidate at the earliest possible date.

What’s most disturbing is that the presidential runners have so far been engrossed in uncovering each other’s pasts. However, we know that the presidential election is about the future. <The Korea Times>