Provinces key to Saenuri’s victory

By Chung Min-uck

A sweeping victory by the ruling Saenuri Party in Chungcheong and Gangwon provinces helped it win a majority status in the 19th National Assembly, according to experts Thursday.

The party secured 12 of 24 seats in the nation’s central region — North and South Chungcheong Provinces as well as Daejeon.

In the parliamentary polls in 2008, the Grand National Party (now the Saenuri Party) won just one seat in the region giving way to the Liberty Forward Party, a Chungcheong-based minor conservative party, which gained all 14 seats there. In 2010, the ruling party lost to the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) in three elections to pick the heads of local governments in Daejeon and Chungcheong Province.

The experts agreed the good performance this time was mainly attributable to Rep. Park Geun-hye, head of the party’s interim leadership committee.

After taking office in 2008, President Lee Myung-bak tried to revise his early pledge to maintain former President Roh Moo-hyun’s plan to relocate the Prime Minister’s Office and nine government ministries to Sejong City, located in South Chungcheong Province. Lee said the relocation would be inefficient and could hurt the proper function of government.

Lee soon faced a severe backlash from the people in the region who claimed the President’s earlier promise was nothing but a lie to garner votes ahead of the 2007 presidential election.

In contrast, Park backed the relocation plan and urged it to be carried out as scheduled.

“I have staked my entire political career to keep the promise of the relocation plan to the people here in Chungcheong,” said Park while campaigning in Sejong last week. “I will keep my word till the end for the development of Sejong and Chungcheong Province.”

The relocation is underway and is to finish as early as 2014.

Sejong was designated as an independent electoral district for the first time in Wednesday’s parliamentary polls.

Analysts say Park’s rise in popularity in the nation’s central region is a green light for her presidential bid as past elections were largely swayed by the choices made by voters in Chungcheong.

The area has often held the casting vote, especially in past presidential bids. In 1997, the late former President Kim Dae-jung joined hands with Kim Jong-pil from Chungcheong Province and was able to attain power.

The Saenuri Party also swept to victory in Gangwon Province winning all nine seats there.

People in Gangwon had backed liberal candidates in previous parliamentary polls asthe ruling party only secured three seats before.

Experts say the DUP had focused its election campaigns too much on the capital area, disregarding places like Gangwon.

Park campaigned there three times in April alone while Han Myeong-sook, chairwoman of the DUP, was rarely seen in the province.