Seoul, May 10 The conservative People Power Party (PPP) set in motion an unprecedented process to replace its presidential candidate on Saturday, as talks on merging the candidacies of its standard-bearer, Kim Moon-soo, and former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo collapsed the previous day.
The party convened an emergency committee and election management body at the same time to begin a process to make decisions on the cancellation of Kim's election as the party's candidate, Han's party membership and other related issues, reports Yonhap news agency.
The move came amid fears that if Kim and Han fail to unify their candidacy at a time of deepening fissures within the country's conservative camp, chances of a conservative win in the June 3 presidential poll would further diminish, given that Lee Jae-myung, the liberal Democratic Party candidate, has been widening his lead.
When the PPP finalises its decisions on key election issues, it plans to have all party members vote on the decisions, after which it will name its ultimate flag-bearer at a national committee meeting set for Sunday -- a deadline by which a party candidate must register his or her candidacy with the state election committee.
In its pursuit of a candidate replacement, the party invoked a clause of its key law stipulating that when there is a "considerable" reason, the party can make its determination regarding the election of a presidential candidate through an emergency committee decision.
The PPP's move toward naming a new candidate came as Kim pivoted away from his earlier position in favour of a unified candidacy.
During the party's nomination contest, Kim had repeatedly stressed his intent to swiftly merge candidacy with Han in the event of Han's run for president as an independent. But such a stance changed after he was crowned as the party's official presidential candidate last Saturday.
Demanding that Kim follow through on his pledge for a unified candidacy, the party leadership had pressured him to merge candidacies before Sunday. But, Kim insisted that he would seek a unified candidacy through an opinion poll on May 15-16.
In various opinion polls, Han was ahead of Kim. In this week's National Barometer Survey poll, Lee garnered 43 per cent support, trailed by former Han with 23 per cent and Kim with 12 per cent.
On Friday, a Seoul court dismissed Kim's petition challenging the party leadership's push to merge his campaign with Han's, while PPP lawmakers agreed to hand over full authority to the party leadership to possibly reselect its presidential candidate.
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