Parties in last-ditch campaigning

By Chung Min-uck

Ruling and opposition parties mobilized last-ditch efforts to win Wednesday’s National Assembly elections, Monday, considered a prelude to the presidential poll in December.

The race has been neck-and-neck between the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) with new emerging factors making the results even harder to predict.

About 50 to 70 electoral districts in the capital area are said to be within the margin of error, indicating the results there can be easily reversed if affected by new election issues.

Political pundits initially expected victory for the DUP following the illegal surveillance scandal involving Cheong Wa Dae officials. However, the tide soon turned favorable to the ruling party as conservative media, with less than a week to go to polling day, started criticizing DUP candidate’s Kim Yong-min’s abusive remarks he made in the past regarding women, elderly citizens and churchgoers. Kim is a co-host of the famous podcast “I am a Petty Trickster” and was chosen to run for Seoul’s Nowon A district on the DUP ticket last month. Kim was again accused in a new allegation that he criticized youngsters in his contribution to a local university newspaper in 2009 titled “No hope for you people (in your 20s).” Reportedly, he wrote in the article that people in their 20s were hopeless as they were ignorant about politics.

Another factor that may sway voters here is North Korea’s plan to launch a rocket as early as this week.

According to officials, the North has put the rocket into position for a launch and will start fueling it soon in the final step toward the controversial launch.

Previously, North Korean issues that came ahead of elections largely played in favor of the conservative party as it helped consolidate its voters who were keenly aware of the possible security threat. But recently, the Pyongyang factor has largely failed to play into elections as domestic issues such as unemployment and the widening income gap prevail. Some say voters have developed a tolerance or indifference to the North’s provocative actions.

In this regard, experts say the swing voters in the capital who have yet to decide which candidates to pick along with the voter turnout rate will be decisive factors.

The nation’s capital area including Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province has 112 out of 246 constituencies and almost half of the voters in the nation are concentrated in the region.

“If the turnout rate is over 55 percent and more voters in their 20s and 30s cast their ballots than before, the DUP is likely to become the majority party,” said Yoon Hee-woong, a senior analyst at Korea Society Opinion Institute, a polling agency.

“The rival parties both agree that more than 50 constituencies in the capital city of Seoul and its vicinity are in a close contest,” said Lee Hye-hoon, a chief election strategist of the ruling party, Monday. “The results there will decide who will be the final winner.”

Against this backdrop, both leaders of the ruling and the main opposition party on Monday held election campaigns in the capital.

“The two parties (the DUP and minor opposition Unified Progressive Party) together are likely to be the majority in the upcoming parliamentary elections,” said Rep. Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri Party. “Only the voters can stop it from happening.”

Han Myeong-sook, chairwoman of the DUP, said “If you choose DUP candidates the livelihood of ordinary citizens will improve. But if you back the Saenuri party, there will continue to be pro-rich policies and surveillance on citizens.”