Yoo Seung-min’s constituency likely to be left as non-recommendation

Yoo Seung-min’s constituency likely to be left as non-recommendation. March. 22, 2016 07:20. by 이재명기자, 고성호기자 egija@donga.com,sungho@donga.com.

Former floor leader’s constituency likely to be left as non-recommendation district

Neither the leadership of the ruling Saenuri Party or the party recommendation committee made a decision on conferring a recommendation on former floor leader Yoo Seung-min on Monday. Dominant observation within the party is that the indecision is by intention. It is projected that the party will put off the decision until after the candidate registration (March 24 and March 25) to leave Daegu Dongeul, the constituency the former floor leader is running for, as a non-recommendation district. Tacit as it may, Yoo is given a Hobson’s choice between breaking away from party to run as an independent and announce not to run in the elections to stay in the party.

Regarding the recommendation on former floor leader Yoo Seung-min, head of Candidate Recommendation Committee Lee Han-gu said that he is waiting for (Yoo) to make the decision. Monday was practically the "dead line" for nomination because more time would be needed for opinion polls if there were to be any chance for Yoo to run in a primary. The committee’s decision appeared to be intended to either have him cut off (excluded) from the recommendation list or give him a recommendation. Since the committee said it would still ‘wait’, however, it looks plausible that the committee might go for the third way of conferring no recommendation on Yoo at all.

“The matter surrounding Yoo’s recommendation is like a bomb. When poorly handled, it could explode,” said Hong Min-pyo, a member of the recommendation committee. In other words, the supreme council and the recommendation committee have changed their strategy to leave the bomb instead of passing it on to each other. The leadership of the Saenuri Party decided to convene a supreme council at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday in order to address the internecine strife surrounding the former floor leader. However, the issue on Yoo may not be resolved entirely through the late-night session.

The rationale is that it would not be easy for him to choose to run as an independent candidate. “Mr. Yoo is not a kindergarten student. He won’t be able to run without party recommendation. He would not give up on his party membership so easily because he would not be able to make any solid plan without it,” a member of the supreme council predicted.

However, the party leadership and the recommendation committee will have to shoulder the burden of criticism that their gambit to withhold a recommendation is an extremely petty trick. It is very difficult to find any political party that does not give party recommendation to its candidate who is running for a constituency in favor of the party. Sympathy towards the former floor leader could even worsen the public sentiment as well. If Yoo were to run as an independent, he would have to defect the party before Wednesday before the candidate registration begins. His decision is holding the limelight among the members of the ruling party.