Oh Counting on Youth for Reelection
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, 49, said the local elections in June will be a competition between the younger and older generations, in a radio program Thursday.
"The June 2 local election will decide Seoul's future ㅡ either the completion of the job of creating the capital or a retreat into the past generations," Oh said on SBS.
"Seoul jumped from 27th to 12th on the list of city competitiveness in just four years. It is not possible to become a world top 10 city with a new mayor." Though he did not specify who he meant by the "past generations," it is interpreted as being the older candidates of the opposition parties.
When asked about meeting former GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye earlier this year and possible forming an alliance with her, Oh said he met with important people from across the political spectrum.
"I will not run with just the support from a certain faction," he said.
Oh is up for re-election to the party's ticket, but it is widely perceived as a frontrunner.
Four members of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) have announced their candidacy ㅡ Oh, and Reps. Won Hee-ryong, Na Kyung-won and Kim Choong-whan. Except for the 56-year-old Kim, the other three candidates are all in their 40s.
Oh seems to be confident in his position in the party's primary election, despite having a weaker political background.
A survey in March by Realmeter, a political poll company, showed Oh has support of some 50 percent of the public, followed by Won with 12 percent and Na with 9 percent.
The opposition parties are putting up rather older nominees. Former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook, 65, who is on trial for bribery, is the strongest candidate from the major opposition Democratic Party (DP).
Other DP contenders include Lee Kye-ahn, 57, who was the CEO of Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Card before becoming a legislator, and Kim Sung-soon, 69, a two-term lawmaker and former Seoul City civil servant.
The DP's nominees are on average more than 10 years older than the younger candidates from the GNP. Han is considered as the most popular DP candidate, but her running depends on the ruling in the trial, which is scheduled to come out on April 9.
The first regional election in Korea was held in 1952, but they were discontinued in 1961 during the Park Chung-hee administration. Local autonomy was revived in 1991 and the nationwide local elections, selecting local government heads and municipal council members, began in 1995 with four-year terms served. Local chiefs can be reappointed up to three times, while there is no limit for local council members.
The position of mayor of Seoul is sometimes considered a stepping stone to the presidency as incumbent President Lee Myung-bak served as Seoul mayor from 2002 to 2006.