The interim leader of ruling People Power Party (PPP) said on May 8 that the party will move forward with a planned opinion poll to select a unified conservative candidate for the June presidential election, despite resistance from its official nominee.
Kwon Young-se, who heads the PPP’s emergency leadership committee, said the two-day polling process and a televised debate between PPP nominee Kim Moon-soo and independent contender Han Duck-soo would proceed as scheduled, with the goal of finalizing a single candidate by May 11.
“We have only two days,” Kwon told party members at an emergency meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul. “We must achieve unification within that time and deliver a dramatic turnaround. The party-led unification process begins today, and I will take full responsibility for it.”
He added that any political backlash would be worthwhile if it helped block Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung, whom he accused of authoritarian tendencies.
The party’s move comes a day after Kim criticized the unification plan, calling it a backdoor attempt to remove him. At a press conference earlier on May 8, Kim accused the PPP leadership of trying to replace him with Han without his consent. He invoked Article 74 of the party charter to suspend the unification process and said he may take legal action.
PPP floor leader Kwon Seong-dong also lashed out at Kim, calling his stance “pathetic” and accusing him of clinging to his candidacy. “I saw him hold a press conference this morning just to protect his nominal title as candidate,” he said. “It was truly disappointing.”
Kwon added that politics should be about public service, not personal ambition. “It is wrong to defy the will of our party members for the sake of holding onto the presidential candidacy,” he said.
The PPP leadership argued that the push for a unified candidate reflects the overwhelming sentiment of both party members and the broader public. According to an internal PPP poll conducted on May 7, 82.8% of nearly 213,000 respondents supported merging the two candidacies, with 86.7% saying the decision should be made before the May 11 registration deadline.
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