Park to press for reform

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Park Geun-hye pledged Monday that, if elected, she would press for much-touted political reform by overhauling the process to select candidates to run in elections.

“A set of measures will be adopted that can guarantee a bottom-up democracy in the elections,” she said during a televised debate held late at night.

The ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate promised that she would work with lawmakers to revise the Election Law to allow the general public to have a greater say in the selection process.

The presidential candidate appeared in the debate wearing a red jacket and black pants. Red is the color of the ruling party. During the debate, which was moderated by TV journalist Song Ji-heon, four experts asked Park questions regarding her major policies, which was followed by questions from the audience who attended the debate.

Park, without any other events on her schedule, spent the whole day to fully prepare for her first TV debate as a presidential candidate, which could have a great impact on the voters’ perception of her.

The Park camp said their target voters — residents of the greater Seoul area, centrist voters and those in their 20s, 30s and 40s — could have a more favorable image of her after watching the debate.

The daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee has seen relatively lackluster support from these voters in previous polls, though she had strong support from voters in their 50s or older.

The televised debate took place as a fairness controversy erupted over last week’s 100-minute debate between Park’s then two rivals, which was a watershed event to determine who’d become a unified liberal candidate.

Independent Ahn Cheol-soo dropped out of the presidential race days after the debate with his then opposition rival Moon Jae-in.

After this, the presidential race took the form of a tight two-way race between Park and Moon of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP).

Polls showed that Park is ahead of Moon within the margin of error, indicating that Moon failed to fully absorb Ahn supporters. Some of the supporters of the software millionaire became undecided voters.

Earlier in the day, the DUP raised the suspicion that three broadcasters handed over the questionnaire for the televised debate to the Park camp in advance so that the ruling party candidate could prepare her answers.

The DUP also alleged that the three broadcasts and strategists of the Park camp coordinated closely every detail of the way the debate would take place beforehand.

Park Gwang-on, a spokesman of the Moon camp, told reporters that “We’re told that the leaked question sheet had detailed guidelines such as at which point Park needs to wipe off sweat and check her hair and clothes so that she can look tidy and clean.”

“We also learned that near the end of the debate, the image of her late mother, former first lady Yuk Young-soo, slowly pops up in the background of Park on the TV screen and then overlaps Park’s image. Park’s eyes become teary.”

If things are to proceed as scheduled like this and in such a pre-approved way, the DUP spokesman alleged, it is not a TV debate but a political drama and Park is a drama queen.

The DUP also claimed that the length of the debate, 70 minutes, was unfair, given that Moon and Ahn together had only 100-minute during the debate held last week.

The Saenuri Party denied the allegation. Park Seon-kyu, a spokesman of the Park camp, said the DUP tried to discredit the presidential candidate, as well as the ruling party with the baseless allegation. He asked the DUP to make the question sheet public.