Tricks used in campaigns for satellite parties

The “twin buses” for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, top, and the Civil Together, bottom, are unveiled at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

The nation's two major parties are using tricks not to violate the Election Law in their simultaneous campaign for themselves and their satellite offshoots ahead of the upcoming general election.

Following a revision to the Election Law last year, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) have created respective “paper” affiliates ― Civil Together and the Future Korea Party (FKP) ― to try and gain a few more proportional representation seats in the National Assembly by sending their lawmakers to the minor parties that they will incorporate later.

The new system was aimed to better reflect votes cast for minor parties, but the DPK and the UFP and their satellite parties have been under fire for hijacking its original intention. The brouhaha surrounding this is now expanding to their election campaigns.

As soon as official campaigning for the April 15 elections kicked off, Thursday, the DPK and its paper party became embroiled in controversy over possible violations of the Election Law, which stipulates one party cannot campaign for another.

The two sides unveiled their “twin buses,” both of which were wrapped in blue colors that represent the DPK, with the numbers “1” and “5” emblazoned in large letters. They claimed the numbers represented the election day, April 15, but actually 1 was the number given to the DPK and its candidates on the ballot paper for constituency votes, while 5 is that for Civil Together and its proportional representation vote.

In response, the National Election Commission (NEC) advised the two parties Friday to stop operating the buses or correct the lettering, saying the vehicles could be violating the law.

“The Election Law stipulates that party vehicles cannot have anything other than names, phone numbers and slogans printed on them,” an NEC official said. “We concluded that the big-lettered numbers could conjure up the DPK and the Civil Together.”

While accepting the NEC advice, the two parties complained the election watchdog was excessively imposing strict standards.

“The NEC enforces stern regulations under the name of a fair election, but they are restricting freedom of speech,” the two parties said in a joint statement. “We want to ask if the NEC measures are rather obstructing the election.”

On the UFP and the FKP's side, they have called on voters to support “second place” on the ballots.

The UFP is the second-largest party and its candidates are placed second on the ballot paper for the constituency vote. And the FKP is also placed second on the ballot paper for the proportional representation vote, when the order was set according to the number of incumbent lawmakers the parties have.

The UFP and the satellite party are appealing to voters with the second-place catchphrase ― if a UFP member encourages people to vote for the FKP during campaign, it will be in violation of the law, but if the person encourages people to vote for the second place for both constituency and proportional representation votes, they won't be.

In addition, members of the satellite party are wearing number-less pink jumpers ― the color of the UFP ― and use detachable stickers to cover their assigned number in order to launch joint campaigns with the “parent” party.

“Although many voters are still confused with the UFP and the FKP, we are sibling parties and both sit in the second-highest slot,” FKP Chairman Rep. Won Yoo-chul said. “We will do our best to appeal to voters within legal boundaries.”