National Assembly Representative Ahn Chul-soo attends the Supreme Council’s meeting held at the National Assembly on the 24th and speaks with everyone. Reporter Oh Dae-geun
As soon as Ahn Cheol-soo, the head of the National Assembly Party, declared a run for the mayor of Seoul by-election in April of next year, he rose to the top of the opposition candidate, revealing his presence. Discussions on the unification of the opposition candidates he fired also heated up. However, it is not a situation in which Ahn can laugh. Why?
① The shadow of the stigma of’withdrawal politics’
In a survey of candidate approval ratings for the mayor of Seoul, announced on the 22nd by Hangil Research, CEO Ahn took the lead with 17.4%. It is a close battle with Na Gyeong-won (16.3%), a former member of the Future Integration Party (People’s Power). After Ahn declared his run for the 20th, he proved his’name value’ in his first poll.
The intent of the opposition to see President Ahn’s injury is complicated. It is clear that Ahn’s representative brand is vital to the opposition, but it is not easy to unify candidates. If only Representative Ahn shines and the unification of the candidate is eliminated, it will have the worst ending of’disruption of conservative opposition votes’.
In the 2012 presidential election, the Democratic Unification Party candidate Moon Jae-in and the Seoul Mayor Kim Moon-soo candidate in the 2018 local election were unified with the Freedom Korean Party candidate (predecessor of the people’s power) and gave up. An official from the People’s Power Nomination Management Committee said on the 27th, “I made a big publicity for holding a concert, but if the singer disappears in the middle, will only the organizer be criticized?”
Representative Ahn emphasized that’it’s different this time’. Signposts were installed in the conference room of the National Assembly, saying that they would show their willingness to complete the race, such as’Unification of the government’s judgement’ and’Unification of the victory by sideline’. Representative Ahn’s key aides said, “There is no change in the idea that the conservative opposition will win the election.”
② The shadow of the absence of regional base and power
Ahn Cheol-soo (right), the representative of the National Assembly Party, is speaking at the Supreme Council meeting held in the National Assembly on the 24th. Newsis
Ahn’s weakness is that he does not have a’strong alliance’ to support the final race. First of all, there is no regional base. Honam was the epicenter of’Anpung’ (an wind, wind) during the 2012 presidential election, and also drove 23 seats to the National Assembly in the 20th general election in 2016. Later, in the process of the National Assembly repeating the Barun Party, the worthy of the people, and the Bundang Party, the people of Honam left Representative Ahn. Hyung Hyung Hyung, head of Hangil Research, said, “Seoul has a pale regional color, but the negative image of Ahn will still remain for voters from Honam in Seoul.”
There is no specific political power to support Ahn. The National Assembly Party is a’proportional party’ that has not been able to vote for a regional district in the 21st general election this year. The organizational power, which is the greatest weapon of the single candidate primary and final, is inevitably weak. Representative Ahn carried out the luck of’correcting the alliance of alliances’ to supplement organizational power, but it is unclear whether the power of the people will respond. The preliminary candidate for the people’s strength said, “Do you mean that you will use only the base of the party without joining the party?”
③ Only anti-Moon Jae-in… the shadow of a’faint vision’
President Moon Jae-in and Ahn Chul-soo, representatives of the National Assembly, at a dinner meeting for the opposition representatives held at the Blue House on September 27, 2017. Hankook Ilbo data photo
Representative Ahn’s message is all about’anti-Moon Jae-in’. “The Moon Jae-in regime decided to run for mayor of Seoul in anger over the behavior of fooling the public over securing the Corona 19 vaccine,” he said. He did not come up with a vision of’what kind of mayor of Seoul’. Unlike the presidential and general elections, the election for the head of local governments is inevitably a weakness for Ahn, as voters tend to see it as an “electoral election”.
As for the urgent issues that Seoul citizens recently picked in the Hangil Research poll, the real estate policy (63.3%) was overwhelming rather than the Corona 19 response (10.4%). Professor Lee Jun-han of Incheon National University said, “There is a side of building a negative image on his own by approaching’anti-political’,’anti-government’ and’ban Moon Jae-in’, saying that CEO Ahn is doing a new politics. And give them a vision,” he said.
※Refer to the website of the Central Election Commission for detailed opinion polls.
Jihyun Kim reporter [email protected]
Park Jinman reporter [email protected]
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