Anadolu staff
11 May 2025•Update: 11 May 2025
ANKARA
South Korea's ruling party candidate registered himself Sunday with the election authority to contest the June 3 snap presidential election, ending a weeklong internal party candidacy dispute, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.
Kim Moon-soo, a former labor minister, registered with the National Election Commission in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, as a candidate for the People Power Party (PPP) to face front-runner Lee Jae-myung from the Democratic Party.
Kim secured the party's nomination through primaries but had since come under pressure from party leadership to merge campaigns with former Prime Minister Han Duck-woo, who polled better in opinion polls in hypothetical matchups with Lee.
But the PPP's all-member meeting voted down a motion led by the party's leadership to replace Kim with Han as the presidential candidate on Saturday.
"I will be elected without fail and will make every possible effort to make South Korea a great country," Kim said after filing the nomination.
Han said he "humbly accepts" his party's decision to vote down his candidacy, pledging to assist the party's final candidate's presidential campaign.
The snap presidential election was triggered by the removal of former President Yoon Suk Yeol by the Constitutional Court last month for his short-lived martial law in December.
*Writing by Aamir Latif
