By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The legacy of heated Grand National Party primaries has made positive and negative ramifications on the history of political party in this country.
The nomination race was positive in that the main opposition party has led a public awareness campaign aiming at placing policy at the center of the presidential election.
To raise the understanding of the presidential contenders and their policy visions, the GNP introduced four separate party debates in the policy areas _ reunification and foreign affairs, economy, social security, and education.
The party also invited the candidates to four debates, which were televised to the public.
Despite the efforts, the responses from the public was slow and they still show a lukewarm attitude toward the policy-oriented campaign.
According to AGB Nielsen Media Research, a combined TV rating of the first round of policy debates stood at only 4.9 percent.
The TV ratings of the four television debates are somewhere between 4 and 6 percent.
A total of 13 rallies held in large cities across the country and these outdoor events were considered a major conduit for candidates to present their leadership and policy visions for the nation to the audiences.
From the Jeju island to Seoul, presidential contenders squeezed the 7,000 km of the nation-wide tour into their busy schedule during 30 days of the official campaign period for the party nomination.
The in-house hearing designed to figure out if the contenders are qualified for the top job was the first of its kind in Korean political party history.
Fifteen committee members of the team made all-out efforts to investigate a variety of suspicions raised about two leading candidates__ Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.
Despite the strenuous efforts, skeptics pointed out that the hearing was ineffective in that the committee's activities had no teeth.
The overheated primary race also created negative consequences as two leading hopefuls have engaged in attacks and counterattacks by raising suspicions over their counterpart's property deals and linking them to corrupt cases of their acquaintances.
Their mudslinging finally caused an acquaintance of the former Seoul mayor to request the prosecution to investigate the case.
Polls said the leading contenders' partaking in the smear campaign has led voters to grow tired of the primary race and eventually undermined their popularity.
The party leaders have placed top priority in seeking ways of empowering the defeated candidate to maintain influence in the party's decision-making process.
By doing so, they believe the defeated candidate can play an active role in helping his/her previous rival win the presidential race.
Experts are questioning if the main opposition party can successfully make the two leading candidates find joint gains in the presidential race as the overheated primaries left so many traumas to the contenders.