Will Park Overtake Lee in Approval Rating?
By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
Several major broadcasting companies will televise the Grand National Party's in-house hearing on its five presidential hopefuls this Thursday.
TV viewers are likely to focus their eyes on the lips of the two leading contenders _ Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak _ and how they defend themselves concerning past and current discrepancies.
An interesting point is whether the gap of approval ratings between frontrunner Lee and close rival Park will be further narrowed or reversed according to the results of the hearing.
As the inquirers will include external figures, a series of sharp-edged questions could stifle Lee and Park when it comes time to deliver their rebuttal in front of hundreds of thousands audience members.
On the contrary, the hearing may prove to be an opportunity for them to excuse themselves by successfully denying or downplaying allegations. The televised hearing could be ``bane or boon'' for both of them.
In particular, Lee, who faced stern criticism for the alleged irregular trading of properties by his relatives, including his brother-in-law, Kim Jae-jung, is welcoming the hearing. He is likely to insist that the allegations were fabricated by the National Intelligence Service under the Roh Moo-hyun administration who were struggling to politically ``paralyze'' Lee.
Lee's camp is plotting effective responses in cooperation with a group of lawyers and ways to maximize a positive image reflected on TV.
Park's camp expects her approval rating will surpass that of Lee after the hearing, saying the allegations surrounding Lee will be expanded by intensive inquiries.
Regarding the allegations, the camp believes Park will offer comparatively clear answers to questions relating to herself, while those of Lee remain mostly at the mercy of his relatives as well as himself.
Park is on suspicion of having committed wrongdoings during her tenure at Yeungnam University in North Gyeongsang Province.
Lee's approval rating, once over 50 percent, dropped below 40 percent amid mounting questions concerning the source of his vast wealth and the viability of his key campaign pledge of building a cross-country waterway.
His lead over Park has dropped between 7 and 13 percentage points in the latest polls.
According to a poll by Media Daum and Research & Research, Lee and Park's approval ratings posted 35.6 and 28.5 percent, respectively.