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Park Geun-hye and Ahn Cheol-soo

Lawmakers of the ruling party’s Park Geun-hye faction are responding sensitively to reports of a widening gap in support ratings between the former Grand National Party chairwoman and Seoul National University Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology Dean Ahn Cheol-soo.

 

Appearing on a PBS radio program Tuesday, Grand National Party (GNP) Lawmaker Hyun Ki-hwan said, “One very foolish thing is the way people keep doing opinion surveys with this phantom of a person who has never even said he is going into politics.”

 

“I have a bit of a complaint with the media that are doing this,” Hyun added.

 

Hyun said the “horse race” reports on opinion polls presuming an Ahn candidacy are “an attempt to appease a public looking for proper politics.”

 

He added, “We should be a bit more cautious about this sort of thing.”

 

Recent regularly scheduled November polls by the East Asia Institute, JoongAng Ilbo, and YTN had Park 11.7 percentage points behind Ahn in a hypothetical presidential race.

 

Another member of the Park faction, a second-term lawmaker from the Yeongnam region, said, “Ahn has now become a deified figure. What chance does Park Geun-hye stand of winning in a poll against someone like that?”

 

“I could understand the desire for reforms to the political establishment, but it is not right to do this kind of opinion polling,” the lawmaker said, expressing displeasure with the media’s reporting on the issue.

 

The Park faction lawmakers are venting about the polls in response to a widening gap where they are unable to criticize Ahn directly, as he is not currently in the political arena.

 

Some members of the Park faction are still calling Ahn’s popularity simply a one-time phenomenon.

 

One Park faction lawmaker called Ahn a “hologram,” a reference to his uncertain political colors.

 

A first-term lawmaker said, “Ahn is popular because he is still outside of politics. The situation will change once he is inside.”

 

“The situation changes tremendously when you enter politics and go through the process of voicing your opinions on the various issues,” the lawmaker added.

 

“We cannot battle Ahn Cheol-soo because he does not have an identity right now,” the lawmaker said.