[Editorial] Bumpier Road ahead of Roh-Chung Alliance

Roh Moo-hyun of the Millennium Democratic Party(MDP) and Chung Mong-jun of the National Alliance 21 have finally reached an agreement on the method to field a single candidate after exerting long and painful efforts. But it seems that there is still something to be desired. Although they cleared the major obstacle, there is possibility that the agreement could collapse. Already they were at odds over the press leakage of the details of the polling method they once agreed upon. They can be in the same situation if either of them raises questions about the reliability of the proposed opinion poll.

The problem is whether the loser of the proposed opinion poll would honor the result. That is why so many people want to express reservation on whether the rival parties could successfully nominate a single candidate. It is natural reaction given that it is absurd to select a single candidate through an opinion poll, which accompanies a lot of variables and limitations.

The two parties agreed to ignore the result of the public survey if the rating of their nemesis Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party(GNP) stands at 5 percentage points lower than those in previous surveys. This agreement, however, allows either party to abandon the agreement deliberately. This provision also ignores the changeability of the public opinion. The two parties have not disclosed the method to conduct an opinion poll, triggering criticism from the public.

But now voters are closely watching them to see if the two presidential runners will conform to the agreement and honor the result of the propose opinion poll. If the two parties ignore the agreement and make the mockery of voters, they will not be able to escape the stern judgment from voters.

Even though they nominate a single candidate, a problem still remains. Since the two parties are different from each other in terms of ideology and policies, they should make it clear that they formed an alliance not just to snatch the victory in the election but to successfully run state affairs as a coalition. Now only four days is left until the candidate registration period.