The Ahn Cheol-soo - Oh Se-hoon Unification Spark Fades... 'Candidates to Register First, Then Resume Negotiations'

Concurrent surveys on competitiveness and suitability gather opinions
Differences remain unresolved over landline phone issues
Pre-candidate registration surveys also pose a burden

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The spark of unification talks between the two opposition candidates for Seoul mayor, Oh Se-hoon and Ahn Cheol-soo, has been extinguished. Although both sides hinted at the possibility of a sudden agreement, they only reaffirmed their differences. For now, both sides plan to register their candidates independently with the Election Commission and pursue unification later.

On the 18th, Jeong Yang-seok, Secretary-General of the People Power Party, and Lee Tae-gyu, Secretary-General of the People’s Party, met at the National Assembly to make a final attempt at unification before candidate registration but only confirmed their differences.

Earlier in the morning, after the meeting between the two secretaries-general ended without an agreement on candidate unification, candidate Ahn made a sudden proposal, saying, "I will fully accept the polling method that Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party candidate, revised this morning." Subsequently, candidate Oh responded to Ahn’s acceptance by saying, "I welcome it," raising the possibility of renegotiation.

Although the secretaries-general had contact, they failed to reach an agreement due to the limited time left for conducting polls and differences over wired and wireless polling methods.

After the meeting, Secretary-General Lee said, "As a result of the discussion, there was a problem that it was physically too tight to conduct the poll," and added, "We shared the opinion that more time and additional discussions are necessary." Regarding the polling method, he said, "There was no consensus on completely excluding wired phones." He explained, "I understood that candidate Oh was referring to 100% wireless polling, but now there is no agreement on whether to include wired phones, so we will not discuss it again today and will continue additional discussions."

Secretary-General Jeong also said, "It is physically difficult to conduct the poll in time for tomorrow’s registration deadline, and since there are remaining issues, the working-level officials of both parties agreed on this," adding, "Since this proposal is one on which both candidates have a rare consensus, we have no choice but to take time and proceed."

Both sides agreed to focus discussions on the method proposed by candidate Oh, where two polling agencies separately ask about competitiveness and suitability and then combine the results. However, whether to include wired phone polling will require further discussion.

As the two sides failed to reach an agreement, candidates Oh and Ahn will independently register with the Election Commission tomorrow. Originally, both sides planned to determine a unified candidate through polls on the 17th and 18th and finalize the unified candidate on the 19th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.