The conservative People Power Party (PPP) on April 29 announced the results of the second stage of its primary presidential elections, which kicked off on April 16.
Kim Moon-soo, the former labor minister who worked under the recently impeached Yoon Suk-yeol administration, and Han Dong-hoon, the former leader of the party who also worked as justice minister for Yoon, are the top two candidates. They received more votes than Ahn Cheol-soo, a senior lawmaker, and Hong Joon-pyo, the former mayor of Daegu who was the party’s presidential candidate in 2017. With that, the stage is set for a head-to-head match-up between Kim and Han.
According to Hwang Woo-yeo, the head of the PPP’s election commission, neither of the top two candidates received a majority of votes from the party members and the general public, so a final stage of voting will be required. The detailed count of votes each candidate received has not been shared.
The results set up the PPP’s final stage primary as a contest between a pro-Yoon and an anti-Yoon candidate. Kim and Han took very different stances over the legitimacy of Yoon’s martial law declaration on December 3, the action that resulted in the former president’s impeachment.
Kim is an avowed Yoon supporter; he strongly opposed impeaching the president when PPP lawmakers were pressured to vote for impeachment in the National Assembly. Kim also blamed the Democratic Party for creating a political deadlock, which supposedly justified Yoon’s decision to declare martial law.
Han showed an opposite stance, showing more openness to the impeachment of Yoon as the seriousness of his attempt to implement martial law became clear. However, Han’s shift also served to highlight his lack of power and control within the party, which Han was leading at the time. Only 12 of the 108 PPP lawmakers supported the impeachment vote on December 14. Following the National Assembly’s impeachment of Yoon, Han was ousted as the leader of the party following the resignation of the majority of the Supreme Council members.
According to recent polls, Kim is still leading among the PPP’s preliminary presidential candidates. However, his ceaseless attempts to float the conspiracy that the country’s elections in recent years had been rigged, and his controversial remarks over historical disputes, have shone a spotlight on his far-right positions. That is causing concerns among the conservatives that Kim would not be able to garner enough support from centrists to defeat Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, on June 3. For example, Kim has consistently argued that Koreans’ nationality was “Japanese” during the Japanese colonial rule, which brought stark criticism from the public and historians alike.
Han, despite previously being Yoon’s right-hand man when they both worked in the prosecution, has so far succeeded in differentiating himself from the impeached former president by highlighting his swift stance in opposing Yoon’s martial law on December 3. However, Han’s background as a prosecutor and his history with Yoon will be huge obstacles for him to overcome. The public is still dealing with the trauma that ensued from electing an amateur president who had a background as a prosecutor and no in-depth experience in politics. Like Yoon, Han has never run for an election, except the election for the PPP leadership post, raising public questions about his capability to fill the most powerful position in the country.
Against this backdrop, the PPP leadership and some pro-Yoon lawmakers have publicly offered Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who is also the acting president, to run for the election. According to the polls, Han Duck-soo receives generous support from the conservatives, beating other potential PPP candidates–including Kim and Han, the final two candidates left in the party’s primary.
Han has not clearly stated whether he will run, but local media outlets recently reported that he will likely step down from his current position in the coming days to join the race.
When Park Geun-hye was removed from office in March 2017, Hwang Kyo-ahn, who was the acting president, shared his decision not to run for the presidential election less than a week after Park’s removal, saying his primary task is to stabilize the state and manage the election fairly. As Han, the acting president, has not clearly ruled out the possibility of running for president, many observers think he will run in the election.
In this scenario, the PPP sees the chance to defeat Lee Jae-myung by backing Han Duck-soo as the “unity” conservative presidential candidate, even after they elect either Kim or Han Dong-hoon as the official presidential candidate. Both Kim and Han have expressed their willingness to follow the party’s plan to field a unified candidate in the conservative bloc.
However, Han Duck-soo faces his own issues in winning over the general public. As Yoon’s prime minister, questions remain about Han’s level of involvement in the martial law declaration. Meanwhile, he has faced criticism for his approach to the acting presidency.
In the polls announced in recent days, Lee’s approval ratings, which are hovering around 50 percent, are far outstripping those of the two Hans and Kim, indicating that the PPP’s efforts to form an anti-Lee coalition are actually serving to consolidate the support base for the DP candidate. Whoever wins the primary presidential elections in the PPP and becomes the “united” conservative candidate is unlikely to be able to tip the balance. In the eyes of many South Koreans, Lee is already the next president.