The Minjoo Party's showdown between Moon and Lee is almost a foregone conclusion, but factional strife in the ruling Saenuri Party and shortage in popularity for the minor opposition People's Party obstruct the clear predictions for presidential race.
In last Friday's impeachment vote, nearly half of the 128 Saenuri lawmakers voted for the bill to impeach President Park. Intra-party rifts widened between pro-Park and anti-Park factions, which are pointing at each other to leave the party.
The People's Party, which is mostly composed of former Minjoo Party members who defected after a cut-and-thrust factional battle, gained 38 parliamentary seats in the April general elections, but the problem is that it suffers from a dearth of public support to win presidency.
Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party, a software mogul-turned-politician who once led the less-than-a-year-old party, has a support score of 8.5 percent, about half the third place. Ahn, the rising star in the 2012 presidential election, threw support behind Moon, but he bolted from the Minjoo Party to take his own line.
One of likelihoods is that the People's Party and the Saenuri's anti-Park faction form a coalition in the upcoming presidential election, opening a so-called "third playing field" where non-mainstreamers in both ruling and opposition blocs compete to field a single candidate.
Rep. Kim Moo-sung, who is known to lead the anti-Park clan, said Friday that he would deliberate for a week on whether to create a new party, according to Yonhap news agency report. Kim, who was once one of powerful presidential hopefuls in the ruling bloc, had declared his withdrawal from candidacy.
【国际英语资讯:News Analysis: Prospects for S. Korean presidential race blurred by factional strife, regroup】相关文章:
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2020-09-15
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