The besieged conservative party of South Korea canceled, then restored the presidential candidacy of Kim Moon Soo in a few hours on Saturday while the internal disorders intensified before the June 3 elections. The chaotic Tour in U, after a failed attempt to replace Kim with former Prime Minister Han Duck-SO, underlined the leadership crisis of the Power Power Party following the ouster of former president Yoon Suk Yeol on his imposition of martial law in December, reports the AP, which may have condemned the chances of the Conservatives to win another mandate.
Kim, a former Minister of Labor on Yoon, was appointed presidential candidate for the PPP on May 3 after winning 56.3% of the main vote, defeating a reformist rival who had criticized Yoon’s martial law. But the leadership of the PPP, dominated by the Loyalists of Yoon, had spent last week to put pressure with desperately Kim to withdraw and return Han, who, according to them, had had a stronger chance against the favorite of the Liberal Democratic Party Lee Jae-Myung. After the talks between Han and Kim failed to unify their applications, the Emergency Committee of the PPP made the preceding step on Saturday early Saturday to cancel its primary, canceling Kim’s appointment and recording Han both as a party member and his new presidential candidate.
The regime required approval by a multiparty vote conducted through an automated telephone survey, which finally rejected the switch on Saturday evening, according to the AP. “Although we cannot disclose the figures, the vote on the change of candidate was rejected by a close margin,” said party spokesman Shin Dong-Wook. Kim, who had denounced the party’s attempt to replace him as a “political coup of day overnight”, was immediately reinstated as a candidate and plans to register officially with the electoral authorities on Sunday, according to the party. “Now everything will come back in its legitimate place,” Kim said in a statement.
(More stories from South Korea.)
