By Jun Ji-hye
The ruling and opposition parties plan to restart their schedules for the June 4 local elections this week after a hiatus of almost two weeks following the Sewol ferry disaster.
The governing Saenuri Party will conduct its first primaries on Tuesday to elect final candidates to run for Daegu mayor and the governor of South Chungcheong Province.
“A primary for the Seoul mayoral election will be held on May 12,” said the party in a statement.
The governing camp originally planned to hold that primary, which is at the center of public attention, on Wednesday, but postponed it twice amid a public atmosphere of grief.
Seven-term lawmaker Chung Mong-joon and former Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, along with a member of the Supreme Council, Lee Hye-hoon, are competing to win the ticket to take on incumbent Mayor Park Won-soon of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD).
In particular, Rep. Chung has had a rough time in the last few days following an improper remark made by his youngest son regarding the disaster that killed 187 passengers with 115 still unaccounted for as of Sunday afternoon. The son described the families of the missing as “uncivilized,” for shouting at President Park Geun-hye and pouring water on Prime Minister Chung Hong-won.
The NPAD will begin with a primary for Busan mayoral election on Tuesday, which will be followed by another one on May 11 for the Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial election.
The rival parties also plan to elect new floor leaders on May 8.
Bipartisan activities in the National Assembly, which were also halted for a while, will resume as well, as parties are set to convene a plenary session Tuesday to approve bills designed to prevent the recurrence of tragic accidents.
“Such bills include revisions to the Maritime Safety Law and to the School Safety Accidents Prevention Law,” said an official from the parliamentary administration office.
Whether the rivals will be able to reach a conclusion on a long pending basic pension bill also remains to be seen.
The NPAD plans to hold a meeting with its lawmakers today to discuss whether to accept the ruling party’s compromise suggestion that calls for providing 70 percent of the elderly in the low-income bracket with a basic pension ranging from 100,000 won ($96) to 200,000 won after linking the scheme to the national pension.
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