Parties to fight under same rules

Rival camps still face criticism over breaking campaign promises

The two rival parties have managed to avoid competing in the June 4 local elections with two conflicting sets of nomination standards, following a decision by the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) to maintain the practice of the party nominating candidates.

However, both camps must now live with public criticism for reneging on their 2012 presidential campaign pledges, where President Park Geun-hye, then the ruling Saenuri Party candidate, Rep. Moon Jae-in, a candidate from the now-defunct Democratic Party (DP), and independent Ahn Cheol-soo all promised to abolish the party nomination system.

Choi Kyung-hwan, floor leader of the governing party said Friday both parties embarked on exhaustive consultations about the issue with the aim of reflecting on their tendencies to make unrealistic campaign pledges that only end up confusing the public.

“It is very good to prevent the situation in which one party nominates candidates, while the other doesn’t,” he said at a party meeting. “Ending the nomination system to fulfill the promise could possibly cause unexpected side effects. So, I want to ask the public to understand the parties overturning their promise.”

He added that both parties are responsible for breaking the pledge.

The ruling party decided last month to maintain the practice of parties nominating candidates to stand in the race for mayors and council members in municipal and provincial districts.

Ahn and Kim, co-chairmen of the leading opposition NPAD, lambasted the ruling party for its decision and urged it to keep its word.

After a seemingly fruitless effort, the NPAD eventually decided to follow the Saenuri Party’s lead, in accordance with the result of an opinion poll of its party members and the public conducted Wednesday.

By backtracking on their original stance, Ahn’s efforts to differentiate his camp from the mainstream parties have been undermined. He accused them in the past of habitually breaking their promises in pursuit of parochial interests.

In response to the criticism, Ahn is promising to unveil an innovative nomination system in due course, while the party braces for the June 4 polls.

“The most significant task for the NPAD at this stage is to select clean and well-qualified candidates who are ready to devote themselves to each region,” said Ahn during the first meeting of the six chiefs of the party’s campaign units including himself and Kim Han-gil.

The other four are Rep. Moon Jae-in; five-term lawmaker Chung Sye-kyun; senior advisors Sohn Hak-kyu and Chung Dong-young; and Kim Doo-kwan, former governor of South Gyeongsang Province.

However, Ahn is still left with the daunting task of making up for time wasted in pushing the ruling party and President Park to concede.

Another lingering challenge for Ahn is the internal factionalism between the members who want to be nominated with less than two months to the elections.

This stems from the fact that the DP and Ahn’s camp have a very disproportionate number of parliamentary seats, 126 to 2.

The NPAD was recently established as a coalition between the DP and Ahn’s supporters.

Moon’s participation in the campaign process is widely seen as a boost to Ahn in his quest to resolve the factional dispute between supporters of late President Roh Moo-hyun and others.

Moon served as chief of staff under the Roh administration. By Jun Ji-hye, The Korea Times