NATIONAL

The race for the ruling People Power Party’s (PPP’s) chairmanship is heating up. The lead of Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, self-styled as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s pick, is being threatened by Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo who is in hot pursuit.

The race for the ruling People Power Party’s (PPP) chairmanship is heating up. The lead of Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, self-styled as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s pick, is being threatened by Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, who is in hot pursuit.

On Thursday the PPP began receiving candidate applications for its March 8 national convention, during which the party will elect its new chairman.

Kim and Ahn finished applying for candidacy in the morning and asked for party members’ support.

“This is the first step toward our party’s victory in the 2024 general election,” Kim said. “I ask the party to select Kim Gi-hyeon who can back up the Yoon administration’s success and pull off a landslide victory in next year’s general election.”

Ahn said he ran for the chairmanship to be “a support for President Yoon,” stressing that his current status in the PPP was due to the coalition between him and the president. Ahn was the head of the center-right People’s Party before last year’s presidential election. He became a PPP member as he merged his presidential campaign with Yoon and served as Yoon’s presidential transition committee chairman.

In a Realmeter poll between Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, on the preferred candidate for PPP chairman, Ahn was leading the pack with 43.3 percent, up 9.4 percentage points from the pollster’s previous survey between Jan. 25 to 26.

Kim secured a 36 percent support rate, down 4 percentage points during the same period, allowing Ahn to lead the race.

The result came after former Rep. Yoo Seong-min, an anti-Yoon faction member, announced on Jan. 31 that he would not run for the party chairmanship. Given Yoo had an 8.8 percent support rate in the Jan. 25-26 survey, Ahn has perhaps assumed Yoo’s support rate since.

“Yoo and Ahn are sharing common ground on negative sentiments against President Yoon,” Kim said during a radio interview with broadcaster SBS, Thursday. Referring to a conflict between Yoon and Ahn during the transition period, Kim questioned whether Ahn was “a trustworthy person for the president.”

Conversely, Ahn is stressing that he is the candidate who best understands President Yoon’s intentions.

During a radio interview with broadcaster BBS, Thursday, Ahn compared his relationship with Yoon to that of English Premier League Tottenham Hotspur duo Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, calling them a “combo of victory.”

Another bolstering factor for Ahn’s race is the ongoing controversy over Kim’s photo with volleyball star Kim Yeon-koung.

Kim posted a photo of himself, trot singer Nam Jin and volleyball star Kim, at a Restaurant in Seoul on Facebook last Friday, commenting that they were his supporters.

However, this triggered controversy with some internet users who considered it inappropriate for celebrities to express political leanings. The two denied the lawmaker’s comment that Rep. Kim asked them for a photo, and said he was a stranger.

Later, Rep. Kim said he “regrets any possible misunderstanding from the photo.” Though he was apparently told that an acquaintance who arranged the photo opportunity had obtained their consent for publishing the photo.

This resulted in a verbal conflict between Ahn and Kim. Ahn told reporters that “if this kind of incident happens during the general election period, the election will be totally destroyed.” Kim claimed Ahn was launching a smear campaign.

The Realmeter poll surveyed 1,005 respondents. But it only counted 428 of the respondents because only PPP members can cast their vote at the national convention. Further details are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission’s website.