Seoul Mayor Ahn Chul-soo (right) and Mayor Oh Se-hoon of the People’s Power of the People’s Republic of Korea (right) greet at the 3·8 International Women’s Day event hosted by the Korean Women’s Association at the Air Force Hotel in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on the 8th. Reporter Oh Jong-taek
The negotiations for the unification of candidates for the 4/7 Seoul Mayor by-election between candidate Oh Se-hoon and National Assembly candidate Ahn Cheol-soo faced turbulence. In the meantime, the two candidates met twice in person and caught a big stem of the negotiations with the so-called’Top-Down’ method, but this was because the disagreements were exposed, such as Goseong coming and going in the working-level negotiations held on the 12th.
The power of the people Yang-seok Chung, secretary general Seong Il-jong, former lawmaker Kwon Taek-ki, secretary general Lee Tae-gyu of the National Assembly Party, professor Jeong Yeon-jeong Bae Jae-dae, and former vice chairman of the National Assembly, Lee Young-hoon, met at the National Assembly at 11 am to start negotiations. Negotiations ended after 3pm, 4 hours after the lunchbox was delivered to the conference hall, but the two sides said, “There is no agreement. I have nothing to announce,” he left. The reporter’s question about the next negotiation schedule was silently answered.
During the negotiations, the castles of both sides were heard outside the conference hall. When the people’s power side said, “Where are you talking to me?” “Why are you talking to me?” or Rep. Tae-gyu Lee asked, “Why can’t you follow (the details of the negotiations)?” The basic manners aren’t good,” he said. The chair hit the floor or the table and made a dull sound.
安’s “Comprehensive Settlement”-吳’s “Population Survey Later”
It is said that the part where the two sides faced tight was ▶ the number and method of discussions and ▶ the method of polling. Secretary-General Lee Tae-gyu met with reporters after negotiations and said, “In the process of reaching discussions, the voice was raised, but that is not the reason for not reaching an agreement.” Then he said, “From our position (the National Assembly Party), we are in a position to settle collectively because there is not much time left, and that it would be better if the people’s strength should be stepped up,” he said. “We couldn’t agree on that difference, so we will meet again and discuss again. I did it.
Candidate Oh’s secretary general Yang-seok Chung also met with reporters, saying, “We need more (debate) times (in addition to the 14th non-debate and the 16th TV debate). He said, “We decided to do it slowly because we did the polls late (not to settle collectively).” When the explanations of the two sides are summarized, the people’s power to increase the number of debates in the end, and the opinion of the People’s Party to settle the polling method at the same time if the number of debates is to be increased are mixed.
Conflict between the two sides grows due to the issue of putting the phrase’competitiveness’ in public opinion polls
Candidate Oh’s official said, “Before eating the lunch, we almost reached consensus on the number of discussions, etc.,” he said. “However, after meals, candidate Ahn repeatedly demanded that the phrase’competitiveness’ be put in the unified poll questionnaire, and the discussion problem was resolved. It didn’t work and the negotiations were over.” Candidate Oh, the 1st opposition candidate, prefers the phrase’who is suitable as an opposition candidate’, while Ahn’s side, emphasizing moderate expansion, wants the phrase’who is competitive as an opposition candidate’.
Candidate Oh and Candidate Ahn said that at a closed meeting on the night of the 10th, they agreed to unify before the registration date on the 18th and 19th, and to hold a vision presentation on the 14th and a TV debate on the 16th. Based on this, on the 11th, the two sides agreed to decide on a single candidate on the 19th, the deadline for registration of candidates, through public opinion polls for two days from 17th to 18th.
However, as the working-level negotiations hit the wall, it became unclear whether the non-debate could be held on the 14th as scheduled. However, both sides are spared the saying that the event was cancelled.
Analysis that negotiations became fierce as the approval rating of 吳 rose
It is analyzed that the fact that the negotiations that the two candidates were navigating in person and met turbulence on this day is not irrelevant to the approval rate of Candidate Se-hoon Oh, who is showing an uptrend recently. Since Candidate Oh was finally elected as the People’s Power candidate on the 4th, the approval ratings of Candidate Oh and Ahn are showing a very thin pattern. In particular, in the relevance survey for unifying opposition rights announced on the 11th, when Korea Research commissioned KBS to investigate 800 citizens in Seoul on the 8th and 9th, although it is within the margin of error, Candidate Oh (38.4%) selected Candidate Ahn (38.3%) of 0.1. The result was ahead of the percentage point difference. This was the first poll result in which Candidate Oh was ahead after the announcement. (Refer to the website of the Central Election Polls Deliberation Committee for more details.) The negotiations will inevitably become more intense as it flows into a close match.
Candidate Oh said in a radio interview that day, regarding the recent polls, “If you look at the trend, I’ve been a little slack, but now I can feel it’s a little uptrend.”
Candidate Ahn, who decided to meet with Kim Jong-in, Chairman of the People’s Power Emergency Response Committee, met with reporters on this day and said, “(Meet with Chairman Kim) I ask you to play a role so that the unification process can be smoothly performed and (at the end) synergies within the deadline. I want to give it to you.”
Reporter Heo Jin and Seong Ji-won [email protected]
