Seoul: Former Minister of Labor, Kim Moon-Soo, won the presidential appointment of the main conservative party of South Korea, faced with a difficult battle against the first Liberal cycle Lee Jae-Myung for the June 3 elections.
Observers say Han will probably try to align with other conservative forces, such as the former Prime Minister Han Duck-SooTo prevent a split of conservative votes in order to stimulate the prospects of a conservative victory against Lee.
In a party primary that ended on Saturday May 3, Kim won 56.5% of the votes expressed, beating his only competitor, Han Dong-Hoon, the party announced in a television announcement. Other contenders were eliminated in the previous towers.
The June 3 election is supposed to find a successor to the Conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, a member of the PPP who was dismissed and removed from his functions in early April for his unavoidable of the martial law on December 3.
Kim opposed the dismissal by the Yoon Parliament, although he declared that he respects a decision of the Constitutional Court which officially rejected Yoon as president in early April.
Yoon's indictment is a major source of quarrel of the Popers Power Festival and a burning subject in the primary of the party.
Han, who was the Prime Minister of Justice of Yoon, leads a reformist faction but a minority at the PPP who joined the liberal opposition to vote to overthrow the decree of the Martial Law of Yoon and put it in accusation later. Without the support of the members of the faction of Han, a motion of indictment led by the opposition on Yoon could not go through the National Assembly because the opposition parties were eight votes unless a majority of two thirds to approve it.
Observers have previously predicted Han's appointment could help the party obtain more moderate swing votes, which represent around 30 to 40% of voters in South Korea, are fed up with severe political polarization and oppose both Yoon and Lee.
Lee is the clear favorite to win the elections, but he represents a total of five criminal trials on corruption and other accusations. If Lee becomes president, these trials will probably stop because he will benefit from the presidential immunity of most criminal proceedings.
Lee's campaign has undergone a setback due to a recent decision of the Supreme Court to order a new trial on its Accusations of the electoral law. We do not know if he is confronted with a sentence of justice which requires the suspension of his campaign before the vote of June 3, but he will probably face an intense political offensive by his electoral rivals.
