Party fails in bid to switch candidate for South Korean presidential election

South Korea’s People Power Party’s presidential election candidate Kim Moon Soo speaks after submitting documents to register as a candidate to run in the June 3 presidential election, at the National Election Commission, Gwacheon. Picture: Ahn Young-joon/AP

South Korea’s embattled conservative party cancelled and then reinstated the presidential candidacy of Kim Moon Soo within hours as internal turmoil escalated ahead of the June 3 election.

Saturday’s chaotic U-turn, after a failed attempt to replace Mr Kim with former prime minister Han Duck-soo, underscored the People Power Party’s (PPP) leadership crisis following the ousting of former president Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law imposition in December, which possibly doomed the conservatives’ chances of winning another term in government.