By Kang Hyun-kyung
Campaign strategists push for a change in the name of political parties when facing an extremely unfavorable campaign landscape, as they believe that unless they do otherwise there will be no chance of winning elections.
Analysts say both ruling and opposition parties consider the card, which usually comes with a hundreds of millions of won price tag depending on the size of the party, simply because it has proven to be effective before.
Choi Young-jin, a professor of politics at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, said Friday that with the political maneuvering parties target their traditional supporters who withhold their support after they are disappointed by their preferred party.
Campaign strategists called these decades-long supporters “domestic rabbits” in comparison to “wild rabbits” referring to a new group of supporters.
“For example, conservative voters could withdraw their support for the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) as they are frustrated. But this doesn’t mean that they will look to liberal parties as an alternative in elections,” he said.
“These voters tend to remain undecided, instead of shifting their support to other parties. The conservative party seeks a facelift, including changing its name, logo and symbol to bring their old supporters back.”
The political scientist made the remarks regarding the GNP’s latest decision to change its name to appeal to the hearts and minds of voters as the National Assembly elections near. The ruling party will announce a new name with a brand-new logo Monday.
The GNP has been called such since November 1997, a month before the presidential election took place. The party had changed its name twice before ― the New Korea Party switched its name into the GNP in that year following the suggestion of Cho Soon, an economist and former mayor of Seoul.
The party was previously called the Democratic Justice Party (DJP) (1981-1990) and then the Democratic Liberty Party (DLP) (1990-1995).
There is one thing in common when the party sought to alter its name. The situation facing the party was out of control so that campaign strategists reached the conclusion doing so was inevitable.
In 1990, the political landscape facing the then ruling party was hostile as the DJP failed to secure a majority of seats in elections held two years earlier.
The ruling party garnered 125 parliamentary seats out of the 299-member National Assembly.
Political deadlock caused by inter-party clashes over major issues made it difficult for then President Roh Tae-woo to push his initiatives.
So the general-turned-President was determined to go for the unthinkable ― merging the ruling and opposition parties.
For the five years when the ruling party had carried the DLP name tag, it had to weather harsh criticism that the merger was a shame on politics as the rule of checks and balances in parliament had been removed.
The ruling DLP faced a chaotic situation in 1995, a year before the general election in April 1996. Roh and his predecessor Chun Doo-hwan were put behind bars for their involvement in slush fund scandals while in office.
The two former presidents were jailed, dealing a serious blow to then sitting President Kim Young-sam, as well as the ruling party. Conservative politicians were portrayed as being corrupt and ethically flawed. Support for the ruling party hit rock bottom months before the elections.
President Kim went ahead with changing the DLP into the New Korea Party, which helped it gain enough parliamentary seats.
Over the past two decades, the main opposition Democratic United Party also has changed its name and logo several times ahead of major elections.