By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff reporter
The 13-day official campaigning for the July 28 National Assembly by-elections starts today, with candidacy registration having been completed Wednesday.
Eight seats are up for grabs, including one for the Eunpyeong district in Seoul where Lee Jae-oh, a close confidant of President Lee Myung-bak, from the governing Grand National Party (GNP) was elected three consecutive times until he was defeated by Moon Kook-hyun of the Creative Korea Party in 2008. Moon was stripped of his seat last year after being convicted of violating the Election Law.
Chang Sang of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), who was formerly president of Ewha Womans University in Seoul, is challenging Lee Jae-oh's ambition to return to the National Assembly.
Chang appears to have a slim chance of winning the election unless candidates of other opposition parties withdraw their candidacy to support her.
Pundits say Cheon Ho-seon, former chief of staff for the late President Roh Moo-hyun, running on the ticket of the People's Participation Party (PPP), is splitting the opposition vote.
The seven other parliamentary seats are in constituencies in Incheon and Gwangju, and Gangwon and Chungcheong provinces.
Observers forecast it will be an uphill battle for the governing party as most of the districts are known to be the home turf of opposition parties.
The GNP, which holds a majority in the legislature, was defeated in seven of the districts in both the 2008 National Assembly elections and last month's local elections. It only held Wonju in Gangwon Province,
DP officials said they are confident that they can secure victory in at least five of the districts.
However, it might be too early for the liberal party to lower its guard since significantly more prominent figures will be running on the GNP's ticket in Eunpyeong and in Chungcheong Province.
In the June 2 local elections, opposition parties formed an alliance to field united candidates in an effort to curb the ruling party's dominance, but the prospect of such a coalition is dim as the DP is reluctant to yield any seats.
Asked about the PPP's proposal that the DP withdraw its candidacy in Eunpyeong in return for supporting its candidate in Gwangju, Secretary General Lee Mi-kyung did not hesitate to express her skepticism.
"That's very unlikely to happen," Lee said in a radio program, adding that the DP fully conceded to the demands of minor opposition parties in the previous local polls.
The DP has yet to reach a compromise with any of the opposition parties.