Accused of forging documents to get his kids into university, Cho’s wife spent more than three years in jail, his daughter was forced to renounce her medical licence, and Cho himself is facing two years behind bars if the Supreme Court rejects his appeal.
Yoon’s prosecution of the scandal propelled him onto the national stage, and he went on to win the 2022 presidential election despite never having held elective office before.
But two years later, Cho’s story is now serving to amplify his anti-Yoon message among voters who polls show are increasingly disenchanted with both the president and his administration.
“I am going to make President Yoon first a lame duck, then a dead duck,” Cho told AFP.
“UTTER FAILURE”
The fact that a party set up only weeks ago is polling so strongly highlights widespread dissatisfaction with both Yoon and the opposition Democratic Party, which currently controls parliament, experts say.
“What we are seeing with Cho’s party is the utter failure of the two major parties to respond to voters’ demands,” Yoo Jung-hoon, a political commentator, told AFP.
Yoon has notably not held an open press conference since August 2022.
Cho’s party is polling at nearly 30 per cent approval, which means – if those numbers bear out next week – he could end up with 15 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament.
Thanks to the country’s unique proportional representation system, 15 seats could be enough to form a coalition that prevents Yoon’s PPP from taking back control of parliament, which they have not had since 2016.
South Korea on Thursday entered its final week of campaigning, a period in which no new polling numbers will be released.
“Cho’s party is largely running on a single issue, that this election should be a stern referendum on Yoon – and it is winning so much support,” Yoo said.
Source: CNA
