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| From left, Kim Eun-hye of the ruling People Power Party, Hwang Soon-sik of Justice Party, Kim Dong-yeon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, and independent Kang Yong-seok pose ahead of a TV debate that aired on KBS on May 12. They are running for the Gyeonggi gubernatorial election to be held on June 1. Joint Press Corps. |
It remains to be seen whether the ruling party will have a unified candidate ahead of the June 1 local election
By Ko Dong-hwan
With the Gyeonggi provincial governor's office up for grabs in the June 1 local elections, the ruling conservative People Power Party (PPP), which is fielding Kim Eun-hye as its candidate, has been wary of a vote split because of independent candidate Kang Yong-seok, adding leverage to Kim's rival contender Kim Dong-yeon of the main opposition liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).
Kim Eun-hye and Kim Dong-yeon are leading the public opinion ratings among candidates for the provincial gubernatorial election. According to Korea Society Opinion Institute's survey from May 10 to 11, support for Kim Dong-yeon stood at 42.4 percent and Kim Eun-hye's rating was at 41.8 percent.
Among supporters of the DPK, over 86 percent responded that they were going to vote for Kim Dong-yeon, while 85 percent of PPP supporters said they will vote for Kim Eun-hye. Among respondents who are undecided, 45.5 percent supported Kim Dong-yeon and 41 percent Rep. Kim Eun-hye.
Kang, a lawyer and a host of the YouTube channel Hoverlab, recorded 5.1 percent in the same survey.
A former lawmaker of the conservative party, Kang, in April upon announcing his bid to run for the gubernatorial election, requested the PPP to accept him as its member after he was expelled from the party's predecessor Saenuri Party in 2010 for publicly making lewd and sexist remarks about TV anchorwomen and women's appearance. The party, led by Lee Jun-seok, rejected Kang's request for re-entry.
President Yoon Suk-yeol, according to news reports, talked to Kang on the phone earlier this month and expressed his concern that Kang was contending with Kim Eun-hye, who is from the same party Yoon had represented during the presidential election in March. "He told me, 'You should be fighting with Kim Dong-yeon, not Rep. Kim Eun-hye'," Kang said in a media interview. Kang reportedly claimed that he and Yoon, who graduated from the country's Judicial Research and Training Institute together after they passed the state bar exam, "frequently talked to each other on the phone."
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| Kim Dong-yeon, left, campaigns at Ilsan Bridge in Goyang, May 14. Kim Eun-hye campaigns at a street market in Pocheon, May 14. Yonhap |
President Yoon's remark to Kang hints at the fact that Yoon was concerned about the vote split, which would negatively influence his party's candidate and thus allow Kim Dong-yeon ― from the DPK ― to win the election.
On May 14, Kang said on Facebook that he was willing to form a united candidacy with Rep. Kim Eun-hye for the gubernatorial election in order to form an alliance among conservative candidates. Kang's election camp said on Facebook that Kang has no intention to drop out of this race.
Kim Eun-hye, appearing on a CBS radio show on May 12, also said that a united candidacy was one of her options. "I will follow what the people of Gyeonggi want me to do," she said. "But (even if I form a united candidacy) I am determined to complete the race myself."
The three candidates for the gubernatorial election and Hwang Soon-sik, another candidate from the minor progressive Justice Party, debated for the first time on KBS, the country's state-run TV broadcaster on May 12.
Kim Eun-hye said Gyeonggi must be led by "a candidate from the ruling party, not those from other parties who will constantly aim to stifle the central government."
She said that the Gyeonggi governor will have to act like a salesman fervently pitching proposals to the central government. "I will show what I am made of, different from someone who is only accustomed to working behind a desk," said Kim, referring to Kim Dong-yeon, the former deputy prime minister and economy minister from 2017 to 2018.
Kim Dong-yeon objected to Kim Eun-hye's "salesman for the central government" remark during the debate, saying, "expecting rain from the sky," implying that Kim Eun-hye is idle and that, instead, she should be trying to actually make things happen by taking the initiative.
"Anyone can read what was written by someone else," said Kim, referring to Kim Eun-hye's former role as a spokesperson for Yoon Suk-yeol when he was president-elect back in March. Kim Dong-yeon called himself a "true worker, unlike someone who can only talk" as he is used to running state affairs under the Moon Jae-in administration and leading Ajou University as chancellor.
The candidates during the debate clashed on real estate policies, the upgrading of GTX trains as well as bus routes throughout the province, the newly-appointed cabinet members under the Yoon administration and the land development scandal in Daejang-dong, Seongnam, which to some extent, affected the presidential campaign of the DPK's Lee Jae-myung ― who lost to Yoon in a neck-and-neck presidential race ― the issue still remains an Achilles heel for the DPK.
