Moon, Ahn will meet today

Democratic United Party (DUP) candidate Moon Jae-in, left, engages in a televised presidential debate with independent contender Ahn Cheol-soo at the Kim Koo Museum in Seoul Wednesday. / Yonhap

In TV, 2 agree to settle on elusive candidacy merger method

By Kim Tong-hyung

Ending weeks of anticipation and political wrangling, Democratic United Party (DUP) candidate Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo engaged in their first and only presidential debate Wednesday night.

However, their performance on national television was overshadowed by rocky talks between their camps to merge candidacies ahead of the Dec. 19 vote to prevent the conservatives from retaining the country’s most powerful office.

The debate between the opposition challengers will likely be followed by a public opinion poll to determine the single candidate to face Park Geun-hye, daughter of late military strongman Park Chung-hee and contender of the ruling Saenuri Party. Park has been favored in a three-way competition, but the outcome is more unpredictable when Moon or Ahn withdraws.

The Moon-Ahn encounter was rightfully billed as a heavyweight bout for its potential to reshape the presidential race. And like most high-profile heavyweight fights, it came across as rather boring at the time of going to press as neither entered the ring swinging at the expense of exposing their chins.

Not that Moon or Ahn had much room to make striking intellectual arguments against each other. Aside from differing on the subject of reducing the number of elected lawmakers, they have been offering similar plans on jobs, healthcare, education and foreign policy.

One productive outcome of the debate was that Moon and Ahn agreed to meet on Thursday to attempt to find a breakthrough in their camps’ negotiations. However, they exchanged barbs on which side was more responsible for the conflict.

``(You) haven’t made a single change since we resumed the single candidacy talks last Sunday. Your negotiators have been complaining about a lack of autonomy. The talks should be a process where each side makes the concessions it can make, divides the risks and convinces voters that we have produced an outcome that is convincing for everyone involved,’’ said Moon during the 100-minute debate at the Kim Koo Museum in Seoul, conducted on the four major topics of politics, the economy, and social and foreign policies. The debate was conducted without an audience.

``I don’t think it’s true that we didn’t give up anything. When we resumed the talks, we were promised to have a larger say in setting the rules. The guideline was to provide an objective and transparent method to choose a single candidate who has the better chance to beat Park Geun-hye,’’ Ahn responded.

The lack of powerful moments between the two was a sharp contrast to the fiery exchanges between their campaign strategists off the air as they struggled to agree on a method to choose the single candidate.

It looks increasingly likely that the Nov. 26 nomination deadline for presidential candidates will make the decision for them. With so little time to spare, the only plausible option seems to be a one-off public opinion poll.

Or maybe a survey won’t be possible at all. Jin Sung-joon, the DUP spokesman, said there was a real possibility that the single candidate will come down to a personal decision after a head-to-head, elimination meeting between Moon and Ahn.

The two camps remain far apart on the questions to be asked on the potential public survey.

Moon’s side want the people to pick a candidate they believe better represents liberal political values and priorities. Ahn’s campaign officials on the other hand want them to pick whoever they believe has the better shot at defeating Park.

Negotiations between the two camps were adjourned for hours heading into the debate. Ahn’s camp continued to insist that the questions should be constructed around a hypothetical match-up against Park.

Moon’s camp conceded somewhat by discarding the ``liberal values’’ angle and suggested the poll be a simple popularity contest between Moon and Ahn. Ahn’s camp officials were undecided on whether to accept the new suggestion.

``The talks for today have ended,’’ said Hong Suk-bin, an Ahn spokesman.

``Who knows what will happen tomorrow.’’

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Ahn admitted that the efforts for a unified liberal front against Park were facing a moment of truth.

``If the two camps reach an agreement on a finalized plan, the two candidates will then proceed to act accordingly to the rules and make a decision if a decision needs to be made,’’ Ahn told a panel of broadcast journalists in Seoul.

``If the talks fail to proceed smoothly, I think it would be best for me to personally meet Moon and settle the issue.’’

As recently as Tuesday, Moon and Ahn’s campaign strategists were discussing complementing the opinion poll with a separate survey of a sample of DUP delegates and Ahn’s political donors. However, the possibility of an extra survey was eliminated as the camps failed to agree on a voting body before the debate.

Ahn has been popular with both liberal and conservative voters thanks to his track record as a successful businessman. In the latest Gallup poll released Friday, Moon with 45 percent was ahead of Ahn with 35 percent in a two-way hypothetical contest. In a two-way competition against Park, however, Ahn with 46 percent appeared more competitive than Moon with 44 percent.

The camps are also quarrelling over the timing of the opinion poll. Moon prefers the survey to be conducted on Friday and Saturday, while Ahn prefers Saturday and Sunday. A weekend poll would likely result in a larger participation of young people, and Ahn’s strategists believe that this would play in their favor.

The age factor is again reflected in a dispute over how to balanced fixed-line and mobile telephony users among those to be quizzed.

The camps were in search of a company to manage the survey, seeking applications from member firms of the Korea Research Association.