Opposition NPAD goes all out for the July 30 by-elections

The leadership of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) set up a tent Monday for a situation room in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province in the run-up to the July 30 by-elections. The party’s Co-Chairmen Kim Han-gil and Ahn Cheol-soo decided to commute from the situation room to their election office in Dongjak B constituency in Seoul and the National Assembly, while staying at these places. Kim Jae-yoon, the NPAD`s strategy and promotion team chief, will stay at the situation room 24/7.

The co-leaders appealed to voters at the situation room for the victory in elections on Monday. Kim staged a protest eating and sleeping at a situation room in Seoul Plaza for more than a month last summer, asking for the president’s apology for the suspicion over the National Intelligence Service’s intervention in the presidential election.

Some say, however, that the NPAD is betting on Suwon given the situation room in Suwon instead of Dongjak B, the most competitive constituency.

A CBS No Cut News opinion poll (506 respondents on Saturday through Sunday: confidence level of 95percent and the margin of error of ± 4.36 percentage points) showed that in a hypothetical match between the ruling Saenuri Party’s Na Kyung-won and an opposition party in Dongjak B constituency, Na (46.5 percent) led the main opposition party’s Ki Dong-min (38.4 percent) by a large margin. However, Na (42.7 percent) led the minor Justice Party’s Roh Hoe-chan (41.9 percent) within a margin of errors.

A suitability survey of a unified candidate from opposition parties, Roh topped with 32.4 percent followed by Ki’s 24.9 percent. “We can’t win in the election without unifying the candidates in Dongjak B,” a party source said. “But our party candidate is not competitive enough to be chosen as a unified candidate. It’s a dilemma.”