Ahn, founder of South Korea's largest anti-virus software firm AhnLab, quit the presidential race to support Moon Jae-in, candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP). Moon was defeated by Park Geun-hye, standard-bearer of the ruling Saenuri Party, in the election on Dec. 19 last year.
Ahn will run in a district in Nowon-gu, northeastern Seoul, in the by-elections, Rep. Song Ho-chang told reporters at the National Assembly.
According to Song, Ahn is scheduled to return home around March 10 to announce his bid for the by-elections. Ahn has stayed in the United States since mid-December last year.
The parliamentary seat was vacated by Roh Hoe-chan of the Progressive Justice Party, who was sentenced to a suspended prison term by the Supreme Court for making public information illegally obtained from conversations between Samsung Group officials.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com