Former UN boss Ban Ki Moon returns to South Korea to seek presidency

[Kurzweil]

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Former United Nations chief UN Ban Ki-moon has returned to his native South Korea, landing in the middle of an increasingly heated battle to succeed the nation’s recently impeached president.

Ban polled second in a survey of South Korean presidential favourites released on Friday, 11 percentage points behind former opposition leader Moon Jae-in, who led the Gallup Korea poll at 31 per cent.

South Korea has been gripped by a political crisis since lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in December to impeach President Park Geun-hye over an influence-peddling scandal. The motion is now with the Constitutional Court and will trigger an early presidential election if upheld.

Ban, 72, returned to his native South Korea on Thursday. He has not yet declared his intention to run in the upcoming presidential race, but said he would make a decision on his political future soon.

On Friday, Ban visited Seoul National Cemetery and the community centre near his residence to register his Seoul street address, after spending the past decade based in New York as head of the United Nations.

The poll was conducted from January 10 to 12 and takes into account news that two of Ban's relatives were indicted by US prosecutors over bribery allegations. Ban has denied any knowledge of his relatives' affairs.

Ban's younger brother Ban Ki-sang and his nephew Joo Hyun Bahn were accused in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday of a scheme to bribe a Middle Eastern official for an attempted $800 million sale of the "Landmark 72" building complex in Vietnam.

Controversy around the building deal linked to Ban's relatives had been reported previously in South Korean media.

Moon, from the opposition Democratic Party, topped the poll at 31 per cent - an 11 percentage point increase on his approval rating in the same Gallup Korea poll for December.

Fellow Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung trailed in third place with 12 per cent approval, a 6 per cent decrease since December.

Gallup Korea, based in Seoul, is not affiliated with the US-based Gallup.

Source: The Star

 

[Bukyanagandi]

Ni watu wachache watao sikitishwa na kuondoka kwa jamaa huyu, alikuwa hana msimamo, uwezi kumlinganisha na Koffi Anani - kauli zake nyingi mtu ungefikiri anasoma Government handout za Serikali ya Merikani, Wakorea wasipoteze muda kumpendekeza Kim Moon kuwa rais wao - hafai hata kidogo.

 

[Synthesizer]

Miaka 72 bado unataka kugombea uraisi? Hivi anaweza kupiga push up? (kipimo chetu Tanzania kwa raisi anayefaa kuongoza nchi!)

 

[kidadari]

bado yupo fit..... so far wakorea ndo wenye maamuzi ya mwisho