Tag: Ahn Cheol-soo

It looks like Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo are going to keep themselves relevant in South Korea’s politics by running for office again in the National Assembly:

Former presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo declared their bids, Sunday, for parliamentary seats in the June 1 by-elections, transforming the event to one of potentially high political stakes. 

Lee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is the former Gyeonggi Province governor who lost the March 9 presidential election to President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol by a razor-thin margin, while Ahn Cheol-soo, the head of Yoon’s transition committee, also ran for president and merged his campaign with Yoon’s days prior to the election.

Lee will run for the seat representing Incheon’s Gyeyang-B district, which has been vacant since former DPK Chairman Rep. Song Young-gil resigned to run in the Seoul mayoral election in April, while Ahn will run for seat representing Bundang-A district of Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, left by the Kim Eun-hye of the People Power Party (PPP), the former presidential transition committee spokesperson who is now running for the Gyeonggi provincial governor post. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Ahn Cheol-soo’s reward for ending his campaign and supporting Yoon Suk-yeol is that he will get to have a big vote on who joins the new government:

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol named his candidacy merger partner Ahn Cheol-soo chairman of the transition committee Sunday, making the first step to take over the administration and set the agenda for the next five years.

Yoon also tapped his campaign chief, Rep. Kwon Young-se of the People Power Party (PPP), as vice chairperson of the committee, and appointed former Jeju Gov. Won Hee-ryong, who served as policy chief of the campaign, as the committee’s planning chief.

Ahn, who heads the minor People’s Party, dropped out of the presidential race at the last minute to support Yoon under a candidacy merger deal. The two said at the time that they will work together in forming the transition committee and the government.

“We share the same values and philosophy about running state affairs,” Yoon said of Ahn’s appointment at a press conference at the PPP headquarters in Seoul. “Ahn has a will to lead the committee and I also believe he is the right person.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see what Ahn gets in return for joining the campaign of Yoon wins the Presidency. They do seem like quite the odd couple to be joining campaigns:

People Power Party Chairman Lee Jun-seok on Friday dismissed rumors of a co-chairmanship with Ahn Cheol-soo as various rumors about Ahn‘s next steps arose since his stepping out of the race. 

Ahn, the chairman of the minor opposition People’s Party, conceded his candidacy to the People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeol on Thursday. There were rumors about Ahn‘s next moves, including one about him possibly becoming a co-chairman of the main opposition once the two parties merged after the election. 

As local reports raised the possibility of Ahn undertaking a co-chairman position in the merged party, Lee dismissed the idea, saying he has not considered such an option. 

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out because if Yoon and Ahn merge their campaigns they have a better chance of defeating Lee for the presidency:

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) faces growing pressure to form a coalition with Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition People’s Party for the March 9 presidential election, as surveys show that an alliance offers a greater chance for the opposition bloc to beat ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. 

So far, the PPP has been downplaying the recent rise in Ahn’s support rate, saying it is a “temporary phenomenon” stemming from infighting in the main opposition party between its presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and party Chairman Lee Jun-seok throughout last month. However, anticipation is growing that the main opposition party may make a decision in the coming weeks in order to grab the public’s attention before the Jan. 31-Feb. 2 Lunar New Year holidays. 

According to a Realmeter survey released Monday, the DPK’s Lee was leading the pack with a 40.1 percent support rate, followed by the PPP’s Yoon with 34.1 percent and Ahn with 11.1 percent. It was the first time that Ahn logged a double-digit number in the weekly survey conducted by the poll agency at the request of OhmyNews. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but what is even more interesting about the polling is that not only is a combined opposition ticket outpoll Lee Jae-myung, but if Ahn Cheol-soo is the lead the ticket polls even better than if Yoon was the lead candidate.

Here is the latest update on the Korean presidential race:

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl and People’s Party Chairman Ahn Cheol-soo had their first meeting on Wednesday and agreed to work together for the opposition’s victory in next year’s presidential election.   
   
Yoon, who announced his presidential bid last month, met with Ahn, a two-time former presidential candidate in 2012 and 2017, for an almost 2 hour luncheon. According to their spokesmen, Yoon and Ahn agreed to continue their political and policy alliance.    
   
Yoon and Ahn agreed that they will work together to deter the Democratic Party’s (DP) victory in the March 2022 presidential election, their spokesmen said in a joint press briefing. They confirmed that they are rivals in good faith as well as partners.    
  

Ahn Cheol-soo, left, chairman of the People’s Party, embraces Oh Se-hoon, who won the ticket of the opposition bloc to run in the Seoul mayoral by-election, at a party lawmakers’ meeting in the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Wednesday. Ahn accepted co-chairmanship of the campaign for Oh, who beat Ahn in the preliminary opinion polls. [OH JONG-TAEK]

Ahn Cheol-soo (R), the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party’s preliminary candidate for Seoul mayor, runs in a half-marathon on a road in central Seoul on April 29, 2018, in this photo provided by the local daily Chosun Ilbo. (Yonhap)

Ahn Cheol-soo gives remarks at a meeting of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party in Seoul on March 19, 2018. Ahn, a former presidential contender, had stepped out of the political stage in February after his party merged with another minor political party to form what is now Bareunmirae. Ahn returned to party affairs as head of a committee for recruiting new party members. (Yonhap)

An alleged dirty trick that was used against President Moon during the presidential campaign has led to one arrest and maybe more to come:

A member of a minor opposition party was arrested Thursday for making false allegations about President Moon Jae-in’s son during the election campaign earlier this year.

A Seoul court approved the prosecution’s request for the arrest warrant for Lee You-mi, a member of the People’s Party, on charges of spreading misinformation in violation of the election law.

Lee is accused of fabricating a story in the lead up to the May 9 presidential election about an unfair hiring of Moon Joon-yong by a public agency in late 2006, when his father was a presidential secretary.

She had been held in custody for questioning by the prosecution since early this week.

Lee reportedly confessed to creating the anonymous tip-off by concocting an audio file and a captured screenshot of mobile phone chat disguising them as records of conversation with a man claiming to be a friend of Joon-yong’s exposing the alleged preferred treatment.

Lee handed them to a former senior party official named Lee Jun-seo. The prosecution has barred the official from overseas travel on suspicions that he is behind the smearing scheme. The prosecution is set to summon him for questioning this week.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the former Presidential candidate for the people’s party Ahn Cheol-soo has not commented on this allegation yet.  If a political party is going to try and play dirty tricks like this they had better hope they win because as we have seen before President’s in Korea will go after their enemies.