Lee Jun-seok's Warning: "If the Opposition Fails Early Unification and Engages in Internal Conflict, the Presidential Election is a 'Certain Defeat'"

"No Beautiful Candidate Unification"
Hundreds of Billions in Election Cost Burden
Disciplinary Actions May Follow for Candidates Supporting Outsiders

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] On the 24th, Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, predicted that "there will be no beautiful opposition unification." He warned that the opposition could face hundreds of millions of won in campaign funds, fierce battles between factions, and subsequent retaliation. He expressed concern that if the opposition remains divided and fights among themselves until just before the presidential election, the election will inevitably be lost.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the same day, through social media (SNS), Lee said, "Those who talk about August or November need to be honest," adding, "Looking at the Seoul mayoral election or the case of Roh Moo-hyun and Chung Mong-joon, the unification process goes until the candidate registration day. In this Seoul mayoral election, it wasn't even finalized on the candidate registration day."

He said that expecting a primary to select a unified opposition candidate after the People Power Party's presidential candidate is decided is merely wishful thinking. If the opposition candidate unification process follows the selection of the People Power Party's presidential candidate, the opposition will inevitably be embroiled in sharp conflicts over unification until the last moment.

Lee forecasted, "The candidate registration days are February 13 and 14 next year," and said, "November is when our party's candidate is selected, but unification cannot even begin for several months after that." He continued, "(The timing for deciding the opposition candidate) is either August or February next year," and argued, "Party members who care about our party should consider the intentions of those advocating the latter."

He rhetorically asked, "Beautiful unification?" and then stated, "Presidential unification is a unification where the losing side has to bear hundreds of millions in financial burdens and disappear. Every possible tactic to win until the end will be deployed."

Lee warned, "The last Seoul mayoral unification election was about one-tenth the scale of a presidential election, but in the end, the opposing candidate brought up Mayor Oh Se-hoon's Naegok-dong controversy," adding, "If such a scenario occurs in the presidential election, it will be a guaranteed loss." He pointed out that just as fierce battles unfolded during the Seoul mayoral candidate unification process, including People's Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo raising Mayor Oh's Naegok-dong controversy, a bloody battle is inevitable in the opposition's presidential candidate unification process as well.

He said, "The broad opposition must be prepared to fight the presidential election as a unified front early on," and warned, "If the Democratic Party candidate is selected in November and we bicker over unification until February, there will be no election to fight." He further explained, "(Members of the People Power Party and district committee chairpersons) were told that they can freely support candidates within the party and hold positions within the campaign, but should be cautious regarding candidates outside the party."

Lee said, "If a candidate outside the party joins and runs without a primary, after our party's candidate is selected, that person will inevitably betray the duty of party members to support our candidate," and predicted, "If that period extends from the November selection to February, that election will be a division within the enemy's camp itself." In other words, it will be impossible to avoid the party fracturing before candidate unification.

He also issued a warning about purges within the party if forced into candidate unification just before the presidential election. Lee said, "During the Seoul mayoral election, the camp was upset about people supporting candidates outside the party, just noting them in a diary, and there was no active disciplinary action against that contradiction, but it is questionable whether the party's candidate selected before the presidential election will tolerate that." He warned that although there was no accountability for party insiders who supported outside candidates during the Seoul mayoral primary, it is uncertain whether the presidential candidate will overlook such actions in the presidential race.

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