AHN-OH FAIL TO REACH AGREEMENT

[Anchor Lead]

An attempt to unify the opposition camp’s candidates for the Seoul mayoral by-election has failed, at least for now. People Power Party’s Oh Se-hoon and People’s Party Ahn Cheol-soo have decided to register their candidacy separately before continuing the negotiation. However, some experts are growing skeptical as the candidates’ mutual trust, the very basic condition of negotiation, is wearing down amid a tense war of nerves.

[Pkg]

After declaring a breakdown of talks in the morning, the two candidates stepped up to resume negotiations but failed to reach a compromise.

[Soundbite] Cheong Yang-seog(Sec. Gen., PPP (Mar. 18)) : "It’s physically difficult to complete the public opinion polls in time for tomorrow’s candidate registration."

They agreed to commission two polling agencies to survey their competitiveness and suitability and reflect their findings equally. But they failed to agree on the survey method. The People Power Party wanted to include land-line phone surveys, claiming that 5 to 10% of Seoul citizens do not own mobile phones. But the People’s Party rejected that proposal, claiming that it tended to represent more conservative opinions.

[Soundbite] Lee Tae-kyu(Sec. Gen., People’s Party) : "We need more time to talk since we still disagree on whether to include landline phones or not."

Consequently, it has become impossible to unify the opposition camp’s mayoral candidate by the candidacy registration deadline at 6 p.m. today. If they manage to unify before March 29th when ballots go into printing, the candidate who drop out will be marked as “withdrawn.” But if they unify after ballots are printed, the ballots will have no “withdrawn” marking, thus causing some of them to be invalidated. The two candidates are determined to continue the talks. But their willingness aside, some
speculate that their remarks have far crossed the line.

[Soundbite] Ahn Cheol-soo(People’s Party Seoul Mayoral Candidate (Mar. 17)) : "Chairman Kim Chong-in’s wife has the same name as my wife. Stories about her political influence are well-known in Yeouido.

[Soundbite] Kim Chong-in(PPP interim chief): I think he’s a bit weird in the head."

It has become difficult to achieve their original goal of the initially proposed "beautiful unification." Meanwhile, current and former leaders of the conservative camp blamed People Power Party leader Kim Chong-in for obstructing the unification.