By Jack Kim and Heekyong Yang
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s conservatives made another about-face on Saturday and reinstated their nominee, just hours after dropping him and reopening the nomination process as the divided party struggled for unity to challenge the liberal frontrunner in a presidential election four weeks away.
People Power Party nominee Kim Moon-soo welcomed the decision, which was made after polling party members over whether to replace him with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, whose late entry into the race derailed the consensus over its candidate for the snap June 3 presidential vote.
“Now everything will fall into place,” he said in a statement, promising to seek unity and build a “big tent” coalition to take on liberal Democratic Party’s candidate Lee Jae-myung when campaigning officially begins on Monday.
Lee has been a clear frontrunner to replace conservative former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office in April for violating his duties when he declared a short-lived martial law in December.
Kim, who was selected as the conservatives’ candidate in a party convention a week ago, resisted pressure from the party to step aside in favour of the more popular Han, who had declined to participate in the nomination process while he was still serving as prime minister.
He spent the recent days openly clashing with PPP leadership and filing legal challenges against the party, including in the hours before he was reinstated.
Kim said he was the sole legitimate candidate chosen under a democratic process.
He filed for an injunction to stop the party from reopening the nomination process but it was denied by a court on Friday, clearing the way for the conservatives to hold a new vote this weekend. He made another attempt on Saturday.
Earlier on Saturday Kim told a press conference that the party’s decision to hold a new vote was a “political coup” and accused it of violating internal procedures by attempting to replace him.
“Last night, democracy within our party died,” Kim had said. “Those responsible for this situation will be held accountable legally and politically.”
The People Power Party defended its moves, saying it had no alternative after the two candidates failed to unify behind a single choice.
“We deeply regret that it came to this, but it was unavoidable,” Kwon Young-se, head of the party’s emergency response committee, told a press conference. “We believe there are no legal issues with the process.”
The party was racing to finalise its new nominee before the national election commission’s formal registration for candidacy closes on Sunday.
Han, who joined the People Power Party on Saturday after resigning as prime minister a week earlier, had also served as acting president following Yoon’s ouster.
The feud between the two prospective candidates has cast a shadow over the conservative party’s already difficult battle to retain the presidency, while policy debates have taken a back seat. The liberal frontrunner has begun unveiling business policy proposals and national security initiatives on North Korea’s military threat.
Kim trails the liberal party’s Lee by a wide margin in opinion polls.
In two-way race scenarios, Lee has 43% support against Kim’s 29%, according to a National Barometer Survey released on Thursday. Han was seen as doing better, but still far behind, at 34% vs Lee’s 44%.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee, Ju-min Park and Heekyong Yang; Writing by Jack Kim and Josh Smith; Editing by Aurora Ellis, Edmund Klamann and Louise Heavens)
