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| Main opposition conservative People Power Party chief Lee Jun-seok, second from left, and minor opposition conservative People's Party chief Ahn Cheol-soo, second from right, pose holding a joint statement, during a press conference officially announcing the merger of the two parties, at the National Assembly on Seoul's Yeouido, Monday. Screenshot from SBS' YouTube account |
By Jung Da-min
Main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP) chief Lee Jun-seok and minor opposition conservative People's Party chief Ahn Cheol-soo officially announced the merger of the two parties, Monday, holding a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul's Yeouido area.
"The People Power Party and the People's Party declare an agreement as follows for the birth of a better Korea and laying the foundation for a joint government based on the proposal for candidacy unification declared in the 20th presidential election," read a joint statement that was signed by the leaders of the two parties.
Earlier in the day, the PPP and the People's Party held Supreme Council meetings with their members, respectively, to approve the merger of the parties. The unified party will use the name, "PPP," and conduct nominations for candidates to run for the June 1 local elections. The unified PPP is planning to accept additional applications from those in the People's Party who wish to run in the local elections, as the PPP had already started its nomination process.
The merger of the PPP and People's Party came about a month and a half after Ahn Cheol-soo, then-presidential candidate of the People's Party, announced his candidacy withdrawal so as to unify with Yoon of the PPP.
Once unified, the conservative bloc and Yoon were able to beat their main rival, Lee Jae-myung of the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), by a razor-thin margin in the March 9 presidential election.
"Both parties have formed a policy platform task force to lead constant change and reform (of politics) and propose new policy platforms," read the statement.
The merger of the PPP and the People's Party came four days after a dinner meeting between Yoon and Ahn, where they reaffirmed their united efforts for the success of the upcoming Yoon government. Earlier, there had been speculations of a possible rift between Yoon and Ahn over Yoon's nomination of his first ministers, which occurred last Thursday.
As none of the Cabinet nominations included any of Ahn's picks, Ahn had called off his scheduled appearances the same day, in what appears to have been an expression of his frustration over Yoon's Cabinet nominations.
Adding to the speculations of a possible conflict between Yoon and Ahn, was the resignation of Rep. Lee Tae-kyu of the People's Party from his post on the planning and coordination committee of Yoon's presidential transition committee on April 11, a day after Yoon's first round of Cabinet nominations.
Although the two sides are trying to settle their conflict, the merger of the parties is still imperfect, with some members of the People's Party still remaining against the idea of forming such a coalition with Yoon or the PPP.
Rep. Kwon Eun-hee, who had led the People's Party as the floor leader, had opposed both the merger of the parties as well as Ahn's presidential candidacy withdrawal. Kwon has said she cannot accept the idea of the merger when it only helps to entrench further the nation's political system, which is led primarily by the two major parties, thereby limiting the voices of minor parties.
She had requested that the party revoke her membership in it so that she could continue her legislative activities as an independent lawmaker after the merger. However, as she was elected as a proportional representation lawmaker of the People's Party, she cannot maintain in her lawmaker position if she withdraws her membership from the party.
"I have confirmed party leader Ahn's decision on my request for dismissal," Kwon said, adding that she will be leaving the unified party later in early June.
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