SEOUL– Yoon Suk-yeol, presidential candidate of South Korea’s main opposition party, will hold a press conference Sunday afternoon on his position regarding his bid for a unified candidacy with Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition People’s Party, his party said.
Yoon of the People Power Party (PPP) was supposed to attend campaign rallies in North Gyeongsang Province, a traditional support base of the conservative party, but canceled his attendance for the press conference in Seoul to open at 1 p.m.
The move comes after Ahn withdrew his candidacy merger proposal last week, citing a lack of response from Yoon’s camp. It also comes one day before election officials start printing ballot papers for the March 9 presidential election.
Earlier this month, Ahn had proposed merging campaigns with Yoon to boost the opposition’s chances of winning the March 9 election against Lee Jae-myung of the liberal ruling Democratic Party (DP).
Yoon and Lee are neck and neck with each garnering around 40 percent of voter support, while Ahn ranks third with roughly 10 percent, various polls show.
Some observers say that Yoon may accept Ahn’s earlier proposal of conducting a public opinion survey to determine the unified candidate, or make a counter offer of forming a joint government with Ahn at his press conference.
“Lots of things happened between yesterday afternoon and early this morning,” a PPP official said. “He will need to give his supporters some explanation.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency