United Democratic Party to Pick Single Candidate

The United Democratic Party’s leadership candidates Choo Mi-ae and Chung Dae-chul said yesterday that they agreed to field a sole candidate in accordance with the first round voting results of the national convention.

Lee Nak-yeon and Chun Jung-bae, the chiefs of the two candidates’ election committees, reached the agreement as they held a negotiation at Lexington Hotel Seoul earlier that day.

Lee said, “We concluded to field the one who gains more votes at the first round of voting as an unopposed candidate. After close examinations on whether we have to choose a sole candidate in advance or wait until the initial voting results, we decided to choose the latter, which would promote delegate participations and maximize the effect of this measure.”

On the background of this agreement, some experts say the two candidates claim their superiority to its rivalry at opinion polls that serve as criteria for fielding a sole candidate before the national convention.

On this, Rep. Chung Se-gyun raised his voice saying, “Although candidates should have the common grounds in their ideology and political visions when they consider candidate unification, little can be found in the case of the two candidates. I believe such a measure would not appeal to the people.”