President Park's 'indirect electioneering' causes stirs

By Choi Sung-jin

President Park Geun-hye visited “innovation centers for creative economy” in Cheongju and Jeonju, capitals of North Chungcheong Province and North Jeolla Province, respectively, on Friday, eight days before the parliamentary elections.

Cheong Wa Day says that President Park’s provincial tour, the sixth in two months, is purely for bolstering the languid economy and has nothing to do with the elections. Her political opponents describe it as a “thinly-veiled” campaign to help the ruling party’s candidates, especially those loyal to her.

Coincidentally or not, candidates from the ruling and opposition parties are staging very close races in most precincts of the two cities, however.

In Cheongju, President Park said, “I, along with the people, wish that the next National Assembly will be completely different from the current one.” Opposition parties wasted no time in attacking Park’s remarks as “blatant intervention in the election.” A Cheong Wa Dae spokesman maintained that the President said nothing about the elections.

Park’s comments came as an answer to a business executive’s proposal to reinvigorate crowd funding. “The government submitted a related bill to the National Assembly two years ago but the parliament has never enacted it,” she said. “I hope the next Assembly will help speed up economic recovery by approving economic bills quickly.”

Given that the ruling party usually supports bills submitted by the administration and the opposition party drags its feet by pointing out various problems, Park’s remarks could be construed as her wishes that the voters send more candidates running on the governing party’s ticket to the Assembly, political analysts said.

“President Park knows better than to directly appeal for support for her party,” said a political watcher, citing that former President Roh Moo-hyun was all but impeached for expressing his hope that the then ruling party would fare well in the parliamentary elections. “However, the President visiting certain areas and stressing the need for reinvigorating the economy can’t help but affect voters one way or another.”

A spokesman for the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea said, “We hope the ‘election queen’ will be more cautious about her moves during the campaign season.”

Another opposition party official took note of the fact that President Park wore a red jacket during her provincial tour, the color of the Saenuri Party.

A campaign chief of the third-largest People’s Party said, “The President should know that today’s voters will not be influenced by such an old trick.” He noted that in Daegu, the support base of President Park and her conservative party, some pro-Park candidates are excluding the chief executive from their campaign slogans, fearing a backlash from weary voters.