Half of NPAD delegates oppose Moon`s bid for leadership

Half of the delegates of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy are negative about the bid by Moon Jae-in, a leading member of the faction close to the late former President Roh Moo-hyun, for the party leadership, a survey suggests. However, Moon was still the favorite candidate for the party`s chairman.

According to the result of a survey of 1,577 NPAD delegates on Thursday by Vision Korea, 50.2 percent of the respondents said they were "opposed" to Moon`s bid for the party leadership. Slightly less than 38 percent of the respondents said they were in favor of his bid, while another 12.2 percent did not respond or said they had no idea.

Asked about their favorite candidates for the party`s new chairman, Moon led others with 24.9 percent, followed by Kim Bu-kyeom with 18.9 percent, Park Jie-won with 18.2 percent and Chung Sye-kyun with 11.1 percent. In the event that Moon drops his leadership bid, the poll suggested that Kim and Park were in a neck-and-neck race.

At the NPAD`s convention scheduled for February 8, 2015, party members who paid membership fees more than three times a year will qualify for delegates. The number of delegates is expected to total 290,000.