Yoon’s election campaign committee goes into ‘wartime mode’

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP)’s presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl convened the first meeting of directors of the party’s election campaign committee at 7 a.m. on Tuesday at the party’s headquarters in Seoul, and asked them to step up their campaign as the presidential election is imminent.

Yoon plans to convene a meeting of directors at 7 a.m. every day unless there are special circumstances, such as local election campaign schedule. He will steer the party’s election strategy and response to current issues, including policies, expansion of supporters, recruitment of talent, and reinforcement of messages. Yoon asked the members of the party the previous day to “consider yourselves as a presidential candidate” and to “go to your constituency and overhaul the organization,” which is a change of attitude from the past, where he only took care of critical issues.

Yoon and Kim Chong-in, head of PPP’s election campaign committee, were on the same page on how to increase the efficiency of the party’s election campaign committee. They chose to reconcile ideas and enable fast decision-making through a meeting of directors rather than regrouping the bloated election committee.

After the meeting, Kim Chong-in told reporters that he will check every day what needs to be done down the road since the election is just around the corner. In a phone interview with The Dong-A Ilbo, Kim Byung-min, spokesperson of PPP’s election campaign committee, said it is the first step of the election campaign committee.


Kwan-Seok Jang jks@donga.com