People Power Party(PPP) presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo has accused the conservative party’s leadership of attempting to push him out of the race to make former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, an independent candidate, the next president.

Kim on Friday made his first appearance at a PPP general meeting since being selected as the presidential candidate and said the leadership is using “illegal and unjust means” to bring him down.

He stressed that he is confident he will win and asked for support, adding that if he had started preparing for the election immediately after he was chosen as the top candidate at the party’s convention, he would have garnered higher public approval.

Kim added that previously he won several public opinion polls against the Democratic Party’s leading candidate, Lee Jae-myung, and that there was little difference in terms of standing between him and Han.

In response, Kwon Young-se, chairman of the PPP’s emergency committee, said if Kim wants to become a bigger leader than he is, he should know when to abandon his own personal wants.