South Korea's conservatives have dropped their presidential candidate and begun the process of selecting a new candidate after the country's former prime minister entered the race four weeks before the June 3 vote, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The ruling "People Power" party (SN) said its members had decided to cancel the nomination of Kim Moon-soo.
Liberal Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myeon is the clear favorite ahead of the vote to choose a successor to Yun Suk-yeol, who was removed from office in April and briefly declared martial law in December.
Kim, who was nominated as the presidential candidate at a party conference last week, has resisted pressure from the SN to merge his campaign with that of former Prime Minister Han Deok-soo, saying he is the only legitimate candidate elected through a democratic process.
His attempt to stop the party from resuming the nomination process was rejected by a court on Thursday, clearing the way for conservatives to choose a new candidate. They will vote for two candidates this weekend.
Kim's camp said the SN's decision to cancel his nomination was "against the Constitution, party rules and the sanity of every human being".
Former Prime Minister Han, who also served as interim president after Yun's removal, entered the race last week, saying his long public service makes him the right choice to address economic, trade and diplomatic challenges.
SN hopes to choose its new candidate before the election commission closes registration on Monday.
The feud between the candidates has overshadowed the conservative party's already tough fight to retain the presidency, and political debate has taken a back seat as the liberal frontrunner has begun to unveil his policies on business and national security initiatives related to the military threat from North Korea.
Yi Han and Kim are both trailing Yi by a wide margin. difference, opinion polls show.
He has 44% support to 34% for Han and leads by 43% to 29% for Kim, according to a National Barometer released Thursday.