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Pork, pandering and accusations abound as campaigning begins

Published: 27 Mar. 2024, 17:40 Updated: 27 Mar. 2024, 18:21

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

A 94-year-old Korean resident of Japan casts a vote at a polling station set up at the Korean consulate general in Tokyo on Wednesday, the first day of the overseas voting period for the April 10 general election. [YONHAP]

Candidates are due to begin campaigning on Thursday, 13 days before polls open for what is expected to be a tight general election.

The election is expected to be highly charged, with rhetoric from both the conservative People Power Party (PPP) and the liberal Democratic Party (DP) reminiscent of the last presidential election as they target each other’s torchbearers from that race.

The DP is urging voters to help the party maintain its parliamentary majority to repudiate the hawkish policies of President Yoon Suk Yeol, while the government-aligned PPP is trying to direct public anger against the DP’s scandal-ridden leader Lee Jae-myung, who also ran for the presidency two years ago.

PPP interim leader Han Dong-hoon is expected to appear at his party’s first official campaign rally at Garak Market in Songpa District, southern Seoul, at midnight on Thursday, while Lee is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. in front of Yongsan Station in central Seoul.

Campaigning for the general election ends on April 9, the day before polls open. No campaigning is permitted on election day itself under regulations set down by the National Election Commission.

Overseas voting began at 220 polling stations across 115 countries on Wednesday and will continue through Monday.

In a speech on Wednesday, PPP interim leader Han Dong-hoon blamed the DP for holding up the Yoon administration’s policy agenda with its current majority in the National Assembly and castigated the party for shielding Lee from scrutiny.

Lee was indicted by prosecutors last year on charges of breach of duty, conflict of interest, corruption, bribery and concealment of criminal proceeds related to his time as mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi.

On the same day in Chungju, North Chungcheong, Lee gave his own speech arguing that the Yoon administration should be held accountable by voters for the country’s growing economic difficulties and promised to “rebuild democracy” if his party wins a majority in the legislature.

Both Lee and Cho Kuk, the head of the minor Korea Innovation Party that is leading in polls of parties running for National Assembly seats selected by closed list proportional representation, have called for voter support to check the power of the Yoon administration, which they characterize as a “dictatorship run by prosecutors.”

Cho’s political star suffered a severe blow in 2019 after the state prosecution service, which was then led by Yoon, launched an investigation into allegations that Cho and his wife falsified their children’s academic credentials to give them a leg up in university admissions.

In an interview on a local radio show on Wednesday, prominent political consultant Park Sung-min said a voter turnout higher than 60 percent would likely favor the DP.

Officials monitor stored ballot boxes via multiple CCTV feeds at the National Election Commission's office in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

But on the policy level, observers say that both parties are pandering to voters instead of proposing well-considered solutions to the country’s most pressing challenges.

In addition to promising to move the National Assembly to Sejong, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon on Wednesday pledged to lift building restrictions in Seoul in a move designed to appeal to residents of Yeondeungpo, Dongjak, Mapo and Yongsan districts, where redevelopment has been stymied by height limits on new construction along the Han River.

While the PPP has promised policies to shape better working conditions for parents with children, the party’s manifesto has lavished attention on older voters, who make up the bulk of its support.

The PPP has pledged to provide free lunches at senior centers seven times a week, while President Yoon Suk Yeol said last Thursday that the government would supply 3,000 public rental housing units annually for older people.

The DP, on the other hand, has proposed providing free lunches five times a week and building 100,000 housing units for the elderly.

The PPP and DP have also proposed extending national insurance coverage to caregiver expenses, though neither party has explained how they intend to pay for such an expansion.

Both parties also laid out urban renewal plans that include burying aboveground railways so that the land they currently take up can be used for other purposes, despite criticism that such proposals amount to pork barrel spending pledges.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]