Party fails in bid to switch candidate for South Korean presidential election

South Korea’s embattled conservative party cancelled and then reinstated the presidential candidacy of Kim Moon Soo within hours as internal turmoil escalated ahead of the June 3 election.

Saturday’s chaotic U-turn, after a failed attempt to replace Mr Kim with former prime minister Han Duck-soo, underscored the People Power Party’s (PPP) leadership crisis following the ousting of former president Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law imposition in December, which possibly doomed the conservatives’ chances of winning another term in government.

Mr Kim, a staunch conservative and former labour minister under Mr Yoon, was named the PPP’s presidential candidate on May 3 after winning 56.3% of the primary vote, defeating a reformist rival who had criticised Yoon’s martial law.

But the PPP’s leadership, dominated by Yoon loyalists, had spent the past week desperately pressuring him to step aside and back Mr Han, the man they believed stood a stronger chance against liberal Democratic Party frontrunner Lee Jae-myung.

After talks between the two men failed to unify their candidacies, the PPP’s emergency committee took the unprecedented step early Saturday of nullifying its primary, cancelling Mr Kim’s nomination and registering Mr Han as both a party member and its new presidential candidate.

The replacement required approval through an all-party vote conducted through an automated phone survey, which ultimately rejected the switch on Saturday night.

“While we cannot disclose the figures, the vote on switching the candidate was rejected by a narrow margin,” party spokesman and lawmaker Shin Dong-wook said.

Mr Kim, who had denounced the party’s attempt to replace him as an “overnight political coup”, was immediately reinstated as the candidate and plans to officially register with election authorities on Sunday, according to the party.

“Now everything will return to its rightful place,” Mr Kim said in a statement.

The 73-year-old was a prominent labour activist in the 1970s and ’80s, but joined a conservative party in the 1990s, saying he gave up his dream of becoming a “revolutionist” after witnessing the collapse of communist states.

Since then, he has served eight years as governor of South Korea’s Gyeonggi province and completed three terms in the National Assembly.

Mr Han served as acting president after Mr Yoon was impeached by the legislature in December and officially removed by the Constitutional Court in April.

He resigned from office on May 2 to pursue a presidential bid, arguing his long public service career qualifies him to lead the country amid growing geopolitical uncertainty and trade challenges intensified by the policies of US President Donald Trump.

Mr Han, who had called for unity after being promoted as the candidate, said in a statement he “humbly accepts” the voice of party members.

Opinion polls have seen both men lagging well behind Mr Lee, who spearheaded the Democrats’ efforts to oust Mr Yoon, ridiculed the PPP’s efforts to switch candidacies, telling reporters on Thursday: “I have heard of forced marriages but never heard of forced unity.”