Ahn Cheol-soo Accepts PPP’s Unified Opposition Candidate Terms For Seoul Mayor

Seoul mayoral candidate, Ahn Cheol-soo of People's Party (PP) said that he would accept the proposal by the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) to conduct a survey to seek public's opinion to decide a unified lone opposition candidate on the April 7 mayoral by-election, in a Friday statement.

In a National Assembly press conference, Ahn expressed his approval on the "unification methods" demanded by People Power Party chairman Kim Chong-in and fellow candidate Oh Se-hoon and said that if a public opinion's survey is conducted on the weekend, they might already be able to pick a single opposition bloc candidate on Monday.

The mayoral candidate also added that an immediate unification process should be done to be able to identify the final opposition bloc candidate at least next Thursday, before the official start of the election campaign.

Ahn Cheol-soo, who is previously a software mogul that turned politician, had been in talks with his opponent, Seoul's former mayor Oh Se-hoon, running under the banner of a more established and bigger opposition party, to have unified campaigns for the Seoul mayoral by-election.

The two parties had first agreed to pick a single candidate before the deadline of the two-day filing of candidacy period on Friday. However, the talks fell apart as they have disagreed with the plan to include landline and mobile numbers on the telephone-based public opinion survey.

Oh's party required at least 10 percent of the poll should be from landline numbers which are traditionally believed to be more favorable for the conservative candidates, while Ahn's party had wanted a public survey-based only on mobile phones.

The plans of unification are believed to be more favorable for the opposition bloc to avoid a three-way race that could possibly split the votes between Ahn and Oh against the lone candidate of the liberal ruling bloc Park Young-sun.