Yoon Seok-yeol "Kkwonjunpyo" vs Hong Jun-pyo "398 Candidate" Opposition's Final Slander Battle Intensifies

Yoon "Receiving support from those who will all vote for the Democratic Party in the general election is 'borrowed votes'"
Hong "Claiming to be a new rookie while talking about scalability is nonsense"
Ryu "The two candidates rank 1st and 2nd in unfavorable ratings... Can they win over the centrist voters?"

On the evening of the 31st, the 10th joint debate for the People Power Party's presidential primary candidates was held at the KBS studio in Yeouido, Seoul. From the left, presidential primary candidates Won Hee-ryong, Yoon Seok-yeol, Yoo Seung-min, and Hong Joon-pyo posed before the start of the debate.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim So-young] The presidential candidates of the People Power Party emphasized their competitiveness in the final round of the TV debate held on the 31st. During the process, sharp exchanges targeting each other were observed.

At the beginning of the debate, on the topic of "Who is the strongest rival to candidate Lee Jae-myung," former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl mentioned the "Daejang-dong development preferential treatment suspicion," stating, "I am an expert in this field (corruption investigation), and the Daejang-dong case is just the tip of the iceberg." He added, "If we follow the corruption, calls for political reform will arise, so presenting a new figure is more advantageous for centrist expansion."

Assemblyman Hong Joon-pyo said, "I can overwhelm candidate Lee even among the 20s to 40s age group, and I can compete with him in Honam, where the People Power Party has not received support," emphasizing, "The conservative base and voters aged 60 and above automatically support the People Power Party's presidential candidate."

Former Assemblyman Yoo Seung-min expressed confidence, saying, "The final election will be decided by the centrist, non-partisan, metropolitan, and youth voters, and I have the strongest centrist expansion." Former Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong also raised his voice, saying, "I have a good grasp of the corruption reality of Lee Jae-myung."

In particular, the fiery confrontation between former Prosecutor General Yoon and Assemblyman Hong, who are competing for first and second place, stood out. Assemblyman Hong cited recent poll results and said to former Prosecutor General Yoon, "Have you heard of '398'? Getting 3% in your 20s, 9% in your 30s, and 8% in your 40s makes it difficult to compete in the final election." He criticized, "Claiming to be a new figure while talking about expansion is nonsense."

In response, former Prosecutor General Yoon retorted, "Assemblyman Hong's approval rating is high among Democratic Party supporters, so isn't that 'borrowed votes' from people who will all vote for the Democratic Party in the final election?"

Assemblyman Hong did not back down, saying, "In recent polls, I am the only candidate who wins one-on-one against candidate Lee Jae-myung, so why is there talk of reverse selection?"

Former Assemblyman Yoo Seung-min addressed them, saying, "These two candidates have the highest and second highest unfavorable ratings. With such high unfavorable ratings, how can they win the hearts of the centrist voters?" He added, "Centrist voters focus on policy pledges. For centrist expansion, policy is the most important."

Assemblyman Hong responded, "Former Prosecutor General Yoon overwhelmingly ranks first in unfavorable ratings, and I am second," directly stating, "(Former Assemblyman Yoo) has a low unfavorable rating, so he does not consider favorability or unfavorability."

Meanwhile, the final presidential candidate of the People Power Party will be confirmed on the 5th through responsible party members' mobile and ARS voting and a nationwide public opinion survey conducted over four days starting from the 1st.

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