Candidates strive to break regionalism
By Kim Hyo-jin
Lee Jung-hyun
Kim Boo-kyum
The southern part of the country remains divided by decades of regionalism between the eastern and western provinces, so candidates who say they want to challenge this problem are attracting attention in the run-up to the April 13 general election.
Rep. Lee Jung-hyun of the ruling Saenuri Party and Kim Boo-kyum, a former lawmaker and candidate of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), are vying to secure seats in their respective districts of Suncheon, South Jeolla Province and Daegu to challenge the deep-rooted regionalism.
Jeolla Province and Daegu are political strongholds for the MPK and the Saenuri Party, respectively, and both regions never had lawmakers from the opposition parties after single-member constituencies were introduced in 1988. This was until Lee secured a parliamentary seat in the Suncheon and Gokseong district in a 2014 by-election.
A former spokesman for President Park Geun-hye, Lee is hoping to continue, what he refers to, as an “election revolution” in the April 13 election.
However, his pursuit of a third parliamentary term will be an uphill struggle because he is trailing MPK candidate and former Suncheon Mayor, Roh Kwan-kyu, in the polls.
Meanwhile, Kim has been ahead of former Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo of the Saenuri Party, heralding the possibility of the first opposition party lawmaker gaining a seat in the stronghold of the ruling party.
Their battle, depending on the results, could even lead them to winning leadership of their respective parties and pursuing presidential bids in coming years, say political observers.
Lee canvasses for votes in the district on a bicycle, meeting voters one by one, as he did during his previous election campaign. To challenge the opposition party’s strong footing in the region, he is appealing to voters by promoting the image of being a “humble and hard-working politician.” However, it remains to be seen what the results of this approach will be.
In a poll conducted by Research and Research of 507 respondents, Monday, Lee’s approval rating stood at 22 percent, showing a 15 percentage-point gap with the front-runner Roh at 37 percent.
The survey conducted by Korea Research on 500 eligible voters on March 24, also showed that Roh is in the lead with 38.1 percent against Lee’s 31.4 percent.
In addition, the competition was expected to be a tough battle for Lee because the Gokseong district, where his support runs high, was severed after the constituency boundaries map was redrawn earlier this month.
However, Lee is still confident of a second victory.
“I believe it’s just the result of a momentary attention drawn following the recent MPK’s primary contest. We will make inroads into Roh’s lead soon,” he said.
In Daegu, Kim’s campaign is gaining momentum, with favorable numbers in the opinion polls.
In a Realmeter survey conducted between March 25 and 26, Kim garnered a 52.7 percent approval rating, a 14.5 percentage point lead over his rival Kim.
Observers say that he has moved voters’ sentiment while running persistently in the district despite a series of defeats.
Kim ran in the previous parliamentary race in 2012, losing to Rep. Lee Hahn-koo of the Saenuri Party, and again, when he competed against a ruling party candidate in the Daegu mayoral election in 2014.
After the Saenuri Party had a row over candidate nominations, exposing factional conflicts between loyalists of President Park Geun-hye and her opponents, support for its candidate in Daegu appears to have eroded, said Kim’s aide.
"Voters in Daegu have changed somewhat through the recent nomination row within the Saenuri Party. They started thinking of voting for the person who has genuinely worked for the region, instead of a candidate parachuted in by the central party," said a Daegu citizen.