One Week Left... The Single Candidacy Drifts Away, Solidifying the Three-Way Race [6·3 Presidential Election]

Lee Jun-seok, the presidential candidate of the GaeHyukSinDang, who had been constantly receiving calls for a single candidacy from the People Power Party, reiterated his intention to run fully on the 27th, a day before the deadline for a single candidacy. As a result, the single candidacy, which was touted as the 'necessary and sufficient condition' for a dramatic reversal against Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, who is leading in opinion polls, seems to have virtually fallen through.

With the 6·3 presidential election expected to be held in a three-way race, the People Power Party is expected to focus its final efforts on stimulating the psychology of preventing wasted votes among the centrists with the strategy of 'If you vote for Lee Jun-seok, Lee Jae-myung will win'. Candidate Lee Jun-seok, who reiterated 'there will be no single candidacy', declared his intention to run fully, actively highlighting his differences with Candidate Kim until the end, and responding with the strategy of 'If you vote for Lee Jun-seok, Lee Jun-seok will win', forming a fierce competition for leadership among conservative candidates.

Candidate Lee Jun-seok held an emergency press conference at the National Assembly on this day and said, "In a situation where there is no longer any justification to choose Candidate Kim Moon-soo, I ask the people to make a decision for the Republic of Korea," and argued, "All members of the People Power Party know well that Candidate Kim cannot defeat Candidate Lee Jae-myung."

Candidate Lee Jun-seok targeted Candidate Kim Moon-soo, saying, "A candidate who has nothing to offer other than a single candidacy," and criticized the People Power Party and Candidate Kim, saying, "They put forward someone who opposed the impeachment of Yoon Seok-yeol, served as the leader of the Liberty Unification Party led by Pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon, and was caught up in conspiracy theories about election fraud, which is fundamentally disrespectful to the people."

He continued, "The belief that only Lee Jun-seok can capture Lee Jae-myung is spreading rapidly," and added, "The wind of this revolution, which started with the 20s and 30s, is expanding to all generations at an astonishing speed. The difference between the country Lee Jun-seok will create and the country Lee Jae-myung will ruin is clear. Please give overwhelming support to Lee Jun-seok. I will definitely win," he vowed.

It seems that Candidate Lee has made a decisive move to create a turning point. Amidst the recent rise in approval ratings, it is analyzed that he has taken on the role of the vanguard of reform conservatism through a full run, judging that he cannot guarantee victory even if he unites with Candidate Kim.

With only two days left before the early voting, it is observed as a strategic move to emphasize his intention to run independently rather than being dragged by the issue of a single candidacy, highlighting himself as a 'young reform conservative candidate' to conservative supporters, centrists, and young people, and to embrace Candidate Kim's supporters.

The People Power Party, which regarded the single candidacy with Candidate Lee as a decisive move to realize a dramatic reversal, looks somewhat perplexed. While acknowledging the three-way race, they plan to focus on embracing the centrist, the biggest battleground, by putting forward 'Kim Moon-soo's self-reliance theory'. Emergency Response Committee Chairman Kim Yong-tae declared on Facebook, "We will win in the three-way race." He added that Candidate Kim Moon-soo will maximize centrist expansion, and Candidate Lee Jun-seok will maximize support from progressive reform-minded voters to jointly prevent the emergence of Lee Jae-myung's totalitarian regime. This seems to be a plan to utilize the 'wasted vote prevention psychology' to the fullest, targeting Lee Jun-seok's supporters and undecided voters, while not letting go of the traditional support base, as Candidate Kim is the only presidential candidate of the existing ruling party.

Despite the fact that the 'strategic roadmap for a dramatic reversal' of achieving a second single candidacy with Candidate Lee Jun-seok following the first election alliance with Lee Nak-yeon, the Senior Advisor of the New Future Democratic Party, has virtually fallen through, it is observed that there is a judgment to extend the validity period of the cohesion of the anti-Lee Jae-myung alliance as much as possible until the voting day.

A party official said, "The psychology of preventing wasted votes, thinking that voting for Lee Jun-seok will result in Lee Jae-myung winning, is forming not only among centrists but also among supporters of the GaeHyukSinDang," and predicted, "The consensus that a dictatorship must be prevented will eventually coalesce into Candidate Kim Moon-soo's approval ratings."

Without an official single candidacy, the 'Lee Jun-seok wasted vote theory' that a de facto single candidacy will be achieved due to voter psychology of preventing wasted votes was brought up, along with the 'self-reliance theory' that Candidate Kim is advantageous in the three-way race. However, they also left room for the possibility of a single candidacy until the deadline on the 28th.

Despite the dominance theory of Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party, which has been keenly aware of the variable of a single candidacy, is relieved as the possibility of a single candidacy failure increases but maintains its stance of not letting its guard down until the end. Although recent various opinion polls judge that the dominance theory of Candidate Lee Jae-myung is valid, they are also aware that they cannot let their guard down against the possibility of anti-Lee Jae-myung cohesion until the end and the variable of voter turnout. Chun Joon-ho, the head of the Democratic Party's election strategy headquarters, said, "We must not be complacent just because we are ahead in opinion polls," and "We will continue to appeal to prevent the relaxation of the progressive base and ensure it leads to actual voting."

jhyuk@fnnews.com Kim Jun-hyuk, Sung Seok-woo, Lee Hae-ram reporters