General Elections Expected to be Competition between Two Parties

General Elections Expected to be Competition between Two Parties. April. 02, 2004 22:19. by Young-Chan Yoon yyc11@donga.com sunny60@donga.com.

A 13-day official election campaigning for the April 15 general elections started on April 2 with all parties entering into a more heated battle over parliament seats.

The Uri Party and the Grand National Party (GNP) are the two major competitors in the elections. Both parties are condemning each other, with the Uri Party calling for “a judgment over those who voted for the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun,” while the GNP urges on the necessity of “checking a mammoth ruling party.” The voting results in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, Incheon, and Seoul metropolitan areas as well as in Busan and South Gyeongsang Province are expected to determine the victory and the defeat of the two parties.

On the Dong-A Ilbo’s commission, Korea Research Center conducted a phone survey of 1,995 voters on April 1, the last day of candidate registration. The Uri Party won 44.4 percent popularity, while the GNP received 20.8 percent support. The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) received five percent, the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) 2.5 percent, and the United Liberal Democrats 1.1 percent.

The support rating for the Uri Party dropped by 2.2 percent from the last survey on March 27 while the GNP showed a four percent rise.

Amid the serious conflict between Chairman Chough Soon-hyung and chief campaigner Choo Mi-ae and withdrawal of 39 candidates from the election race, the MDP, one of the three major competitors at the outset, saw its popularity nosedive. The supporting rate of the MDP fell further behind that of the DLP in the poll since the DLP surpassed the MDP in the survey conducted on March 24.

On the other hand, the GNP has clearly garnered more support from Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province thanks to the so-called “Park Geun-hye Effect” and the trend was shown to be expanding to the Seoul metropolitan area.

Park Geun-hye, the GNP leader, visited the 3.15 National Cemetery in Masan on April 2 as well as Changwon, Jinhae, Gimhae, and Yangsan in South Gyeongsang Province to ask for support saying, “We think this upcoming general elections is the last opportunity for our party to once again reinvent ourselves and work for the people. Please support us so that we can check the mammoth ruling party.”

Floor leader of the Uri Party Kim Geun-tae held a press conference the same day at Myongdong Cathedral, Seoul to call for a judgment over those who voted for the unprecedented impeachment. He asserted, “The National Assembly that impeached the president chosen by the people is no longer an assembly for the people.”

Meanwhile, the MDP argued, “The elections landscape will soon be changed into a competition between three parties with the Uri Party’s popularity already waning.”