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Park Geun-hye

Ahn Cheol-soo

Professor Ahn Cheol-soo is widening his lead over former ruling Grand National Party (GNP) Chairwoman Park Geun-hye as a potential presidential candidate, after the GNP railroaded passage of the free trade agreement with the United States last week.

 

Ahn was ahead of Park by almost 12 percentage points in a two-way race, recording 50.1 percent against Park’s 38.4 percent, according to a survey jointly conducted by the JoongAng Ilbo, a local daily, cable news channel YTN, the East Asia Institute and pollster Hankook Research.

 

Some 800 adults were questioned through a random telephone survey over the weekend.

  

Researchers attributed Ahn’s rise to Park’s participation in the ruling party’s unilateral passage of the free trade pact, with Park losing some support from voters in their 40s, a decisive group in Korea’s elections.

 

In another survey conducted by polling agency Realmeter last week, Ahn was ahead of Park by more than 15 percent.

 

The entrepreneur-turned-professor began to emerge on the political scene after he hinted at running in October's Seoul mayoral by-election in August. In a survey conducted the following month, Ahn was behind Park within a margin of error. But in an October survey taken right after civic activist Park Won-soon won the mayoral race, Ahn began to surge ahead of Park who had been favored by conservatives by 5.1 percentage points.

 

Yet, many observers are still skeptical about Ahn’s sudden rise as a leading presidential candidate.

 

``Ahn is benefiting as he has yet to fully enter politics. The crisis of politics as a whole is directly causing the rise of a figure outside the sector, even though he does not do anything,” said professor Kim Hyung-joon at Seoul’s Myongji University.

 

“The significance here is that Ahn is not lifting his approval rate by himself. It’s not a good trend. Park was also in a similar position before. Ahn’s approval rate will be readjusted after he enters the political circle.”

 

Former Minister of the Environment Yoon Yeo-joon, who has been known as Ahn’s “political mentor,”gave a similar view regarding the so-called Ahn Cheol-soo phenomenon.

 

“(Ahn) should experience how democracy works and how different opinions are put together in the National Assembly. The experience is really important,”said Yoon during a radio interview, Monday.

 

“Ahn’s popularity is based on the combination of public frustration toward the established political scene and Ahn’s attractiveness. If these factors continue to exist, Ahn’s popularity will rise further. But popularity itself doesn’t mean talent and ability.”

 

Questioned whether Ahn’s direct debut for the presidential election slated for next December will be preferable in terms of the mystery surrounding him, Yoon said,“It is not right (to rely on mystery) when we have to select the head of state. People need time to verify who will be the best leader.”