Lee Jun-seok: "Ahn Cheol-soo Responsible for Failed Unification... Ruling Party's Political Reform Plan Aimed at Wooing Justice Party"

"Seems Like the Person Who Suggested and Declared the Unification Failed"
"If Seom Withdraws, Seom and Lee's Votes Will Likely Combine 100%... An's Votes Split Evenly"
'rlㅋㅋ', "A Natural Reaction as Party Leader"

Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, is holding an emergency press conference on the 'merger proposal' announced by Lee Tae-gyu, general headquarters chief of the People Party, on the afternoon of the 23rd at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. Lee Tae-gyu revealed at a press conference at the National Assembly in Yeouido that he received a merger proposal from Lee Jun-seok on the condition that Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate, would withdraw in early February.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Jeong-wan] Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, emphasized that the responsibility for the failure of unification lies with Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People Party.

On the 25th, Lee appeared on KBS Radio's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs' and, when asked who is responsible for the failure of unification, replied, "The person who proposed unification and the person who caused its failure are the same," adding, "All of that came from the People Party."

Regarding some views that "People Power Party candidate Yoon Seok-youl should accept Ahn's public opinion poll primary method," he said, "During the Seoul mayoral by-election, the People Party raised the ecological soup suspicion against then-candidate Oh Se-hoon, creating a distasteful situation," and added, "We have no intention of doing such things."

On unification through public opinion polls, he said, "Election Strategy Headquarters Chief Kwon Young-se and I said there would be no competitive unification," and "Currently, there is a significant difference in competitiveness between candidates. Our official position is to give appropriate courtesy if Ahn withdraws."

He continued, "Regarding unification, based on what has been disclosed so far, we have talked about reasonable courtesy beyond common sense," and "Ahn says there has been no contact, but if the party leader made such a proposal (for unification), it means there was contact."

Regarding Lee Tae-gyu, the general headquarters chief of the People Party's election committee, revealing Lee's unification proposal, Lee said, "Initially, an official from Ahn's side suggested in early February that if unification does not happen, how about Ahn withdrawing his candidacy," and "I thought it should be answered officially and told the chief that unification should happen."

He commented on the Democratic Party's announcement of political reform measures such as the 'mixed-member proportional representation system,' saying, "I think they want to woo the Justice Party," and "If candidate Shim Sang-jung withdraws, almost 100% of Shim's and Lee Jae-myung's votes will combine. It's pure cash."

He added, "However, not many votes supporting Shim will transfer to our candidate," and "If Ahn withdraws, the votes will split about half and half," he predicted.

He further said, "In this situation where Ahn Cheol-soo's withdrawal is not guaranteed, if the Democratic Party wants to absorb votes from Shim Sang-jung's side, I expect they will continue to raise distrust about the multi-party system or the mixed-member proportional representation system."

Regarding his Facebook post after the failure of unification that said 'ㄹㅇㅋㅋ' (really lol), he said, "I posted it when (Ahn) criticized our candidate. (Ahn) even went to Busan and talked about 'changing one corrupt regime for another.' As party leader, it was a natural reaction."

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