By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The upcoming general elections will likely be crowded with aspirants seeking office as legislators, with about 1,900 people nationwide hinting they would make a bid, according to reports Tuesday.
Additionally, the April 9 elections to pick 299 Assemblymen are expected to become a multi-way competition because at least six parties are preparing for the race.
What is drawing attention is how many seats the conservative opposition Grand National Party (GNP) will win in the elections.
Lee Myung-bak, who was elected president on Dec. 19 on the GNP's ticket, has said the GNP should win as many Assembly seats as possible to ensure political stability.
The pro-government United New Democratic Party (UNDP) has also vowed to make an all-out effort to maintain its status as the largest floor grouping _ the UNDP has 142 seats, while the GNP has 128.
Those regarded as dark horses include the Creative Korea Party (CKP) created by former presidential candidate Moon Kook-hyun, and another party that former conservative independent Lee Hoi-chang plans to establish soon. Both Moon and Lee unsuccessfully ran in last December's presidential election.
With the flood of hopefuls, the Assembly elections will likely show the highest competition ratio of 8 to 1, higher than previous elections, the reports said.
The comparable ratio stood at 4.8 to 1 in the 2004 elections, 4.3 to 1 in the 2000 elections and 5.5 to 1 in 1996.
Political observers said that more aspirants may declare their bids once parties begin selecting their candidates.
According to a survey released by the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, Monday, about 47 percent of 1,000 respondents said they will vote for the GNP in the coming elections. Only 6.9 percent said they will support the UNDP. In the presidential election, GNP candidate Lee won 48.7 percent of the vote, while Chung Dong-young of the UNDP and independent Lee Hoi-chang received 26.1 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively.
Other parties including the progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and the Democratic Party (DP) saw single-digit support, the survey said.
Political analysts also gave the GNP the rosy prospect of sweeping the Assembly seats in April.
``The GNP has about twice the level of support of the UNDP and it is unlikely that voter sentiment will shift too quickly. So, the GNP has very good chance to gain a majority,'' said Andy Jackson who teaches American government in the Lakeland College bridge program at Ansan College, Gyeonggi Province.
Following its crushing defeat in the December presidential race, the UNDP is struggling to maintain its parliamentary seats by revamping its leadership and organization.
``Reflecting the debacle last year, we should lead the party to victory in the elections,'' Chyung Dai-chul, an adviser to the party, said.
Meanwhile, the GNP is seeking to settle an internal feud between supporters of President-elect Lee and his former party rival Park Geun-hye.
At a ceremony to mark the first day of 2008 in Seoul, party leaders urged their members to join hands for the April elections.