Race intensifies for June local vote

 

Parties will start campaigning in earnest this week for the June regional elections, viewed as a critical mid-term test for President Lee Myung-bak and a prelude to the 2012 presidential vote.

 

The first nationwide election in two years, the June 2 poll will serve as a barometer of public sentiment on Lee’s economic and growth-oriented policies, and determine the fate of some of the much-disputed projects his administration hopes to finish before its time is up.

 

With the official campaigning period beginning on May 20, parties will select their candidates this week. The elections will choose 16 mayors and provincial governors, some 230 heads of low-level administrative units and thousands of local councilors.

 

With Lee’s approval ratings hovering in the upper-40 percent-range on the back of the fast-recovering economy, the ruling Grand National Party is confident of winning at least nine mayor and governor positions.

 

The conservative GNP, however, faces criticism that while Lee’s policies may have contributed to putting the country’s economy back on track after the global financial crisis, they undermined the livelihoods of the underprivileged.

 

Lee’s party plans to set up its central campaign committee Wednesday, which will work on, among other issues, strategies for supporting its candidates in Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces, where the closest-run contests are expected.

 

These areas have traditionally served as a political weathercock as they were relatively free from the regionally-biased voting patterns in eastern and western constituencies.

 

Although the ruling party is currently leading the race in these regions, the main opposition Democratic Party hopes to win support from undecided voters by merging candidacies with other opposition parties.

 

In Incheon, for instance, DP candidate Song Young-gil is closely chasing his ruling party contender Ahn Sang-soo within a margin of 5-7 percent, his popularity shooting up after the DP agreed upon a single candidate with two smaller opposition parties.

 

Setting up its own campaign committee over the weekend, the main opposition party is appealing to voters with the need to check the power of the ruling party, which already commands majorities in the National Assembly and most local governments.

 

The upcoming one year anniversary of the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun is also considered a factor that could benefit the opposition camp.

 

Roh, President Lee’s immediate predecessor, leapt to his death on May 23 last year amid a corruption investigation that opposition parties suspect was politically-driven.

 

Several of Roh’s key confidants, including former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook, are running on the DP’s ticket and will likely remind voters of his death, which led to nearly a month of national mourning last year.

 

The election results will also hold sway over the fate of controversial projects, including the plan to move dozens of administrative bodies out of Seoul to the central Chungcheong region and the costly venture to reform the basins of the country’s four major rivers, pundits say.

 

While Lee’s party wants to push ahead with the 22 trillion-won (about $19.5 billion) river restoration plan to increase jobs and vitalize economy, the main opposition party claims the costly project will not only harm the country’s ecology, but also bring little financial benefit.

 

A majority of ruling party legislators support President Lee’s proposal to revise the plan initiated by the former government to move government agencies, building instead a corporate-oriented city in Chungcheong.

 

The DP is against the revision and is calling for the original plan to be kept, a stance which the party hopes will help garner support from Chungcheong voters.

 

Source: The Korea Herald