[Editorial] No TV debate yet

With a little more than a month to go until the presidential election, many find it still difficult to tell how one candidate differs from others when it comes to key campaign issues, such as national security, economic policy and education.

For such people, televised live debates are a good source of information. Actually, few fora provide a better opportunity for eligible voters to evaluate the qualifications of each candidate.

True, the number of TV debates has been on the decline ― from 54 during the run-up to the 1997 election to 11 for the 2007 election. Still, it is unusual that no debate has been aired on TV by this time.

Moreover, there is no guarantee that TV debates will be held anytime soon. In the worst case, the number may be reduced to the three that the National Election Commission is required to sponsor.

KBS-TV had planned to host debates among the three major candidates from Tuesday through Thursday this week. But it had to put them off indefinitely because of disagreements among Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party, Moon Jae-in of the opposition Democratic United Party and independent Ahn Cheol-soo.

Park insisted that she could not participate in a three-way debate until Moon and Ahn, now negotiating whom of the two would be selected as the sole candidate of the opposition, settled the issue. She maintained it was worthless to debate campaign issues with someone that might not run in the election.

With Park balking, Moon and Ahn have recently agreed to have a TV debate between themselves soon. For an equal opportunity, Park now demands a TV debate with panelists. But the Moon-Ahn debate may have to be shelved, with their negotiations on the proposed unified candidacy temporarily halted. Ahn’s delegates declared a temporary suspension to the talks, claiming that Moon’s party was spreading a false rumor that Ahn would eventually concede.

As the three candidates are wasting time bickering about how to proceed with TV debates, the electorate is denied opportunities to learn about their visions for the nation, governing philosophies and qualifications as well as the specific stances they maintain on major issues of public concern.

With the election fast approaching, the three candidates will have to lay down their petty differences and agree to hold TV debates as soon as possible. That is the least they can do for the electorate.