By Lee Tae-hoon
Rep. Na Kyung-won, a judge-turned-lawmaker with the ruling party, declared her bid for Seoul mayor Friday, amid the rise of independent candidates posing a genuine threat to established politicians.
“If Seoul citizens choose me, I will bring a magnificent change to Seoul in an attentive and soft manner,” the 47-year-old lawmaker of the Grand National Party (GNP) said as she officially announced her candidacy at a press conference.
Na said she wants to slash the city’s debt by half by 2014 and improve the livelihood of Seoul citizens.
She was defeated in last year’s GNP race for the Seoul mayor candidacy by Oh Se-hoon, who stepped down in August after he failed to block an opposition-led free school lunch program in a referendum.
Polls show that the two-term lawmaker has secured the frontrunner status for the race within the ruling block, but questions linger whether she will be a match for Park Won-soon, a lawyer-turned-activist without party affiliation.
As of Friday, no other GNP lawmakers had thrown their hat into the ring, apparently due to fears of a humiliating defeat by Park with the by-election only a month away and polls clearly showing in favor of the 55-year-old independent candidate.
Multiple polls of Seoulites conducted Tuesday and Thursday by the Yonhap News Agency found that Park continues to maintain a lead over Na with gaps ranging from 7 to 18 percentage points.
Of the 500 respondents of mobile phone and online panel polls 49.6 and 47.6 percent respectively answered that they would vote for Park, compared with 30.8 and 29.6 percent for Na.
Of the 700 people interviewed through fixed-line phones, 42.6 percent said they would support Park in the mayoral race slated for Oct. 26, compared with 35.2 percent for Na.
The poll results suggest that liberal candidate Park is enjoying higher support among the younger generation who have a stronger tendency to respond to mobile and internet surveys.
Park, whose approval rating was below 5 percent, became an overnight “liberal sensation” after Ahn Cheol-soo, abandoned his bid to endorse the activist instead, earlier this month.
Observers say Na will beef up her efforts to win support from former Government Legislation Minister Lee Seog-yeon, who has declared to join the mayoral race on the back of support from conservative civic groups to counter Park.
As both Na and Lee share the view that one of them should withdraw their bid to field a stronger, unified conservative candidate, they will likely soon meet to discuss the issue.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), which has yet to succeed in enticing Park to join the liberal party, will hold a primary today to pick its mayoral candidate.
Reps. Chun Jung-bae, Park Young-sun and Choo Mi-ae and former lawmaker Shin Geh-ryoon are vying for the DP ticket.