[Editorial] Red card to candidates

Although less than 50 days are left before the Dec. 19 presidential election, major candidates have not yet presented comprehensive and detailed manifestos that show what their key policies are and how they are going to implement them.

Last week, six major candidates, including the big three ― Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party, Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party and independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo ― did disclose their top 10 election pledges through the National Election Commission.

The commission has asked the candidates to identify their 10 policy priorities and disclose specific action plans to realize them as they shied away from providing information about their policies to the electorate.

Yet the candidates were either unwilling or unable to give specifics about how much time and money it will take to implement their promises.

Election pledges whose feasibility has not been demonstrated cannot be seen as policies. They are nothing more than vague policy ideas. The manifesto of a presidential candidate should consist of specific policy proposals whose practicality can be easily verified by anyone.

No wonder then that the three candidates all rejected the request of the Korea Manifesto Center to present their manifestos. The center, a civic group committed to reforming the nation’s election culture, gave the candidates 20 days to answer a set of questions regarding their policies.

According to the center, Park’s campaign said they have not yet completed internal coordination of policy proposals, while Moon’s campaign said there was confusion among members of the policymaking team. Ahn’s campaign said they would disclose a comprehensive policy package on Nov. 10.

The center alleged that the three rejected its request either because they have not prepared their manifestos or because they wanted to avoid public scrutiny of their half-baked proposals.

So in a news conference on Tuesday, the center issued a red card to the three presidential aspirants.

Political parties should embrace manifestos as an integral part of election campaigns. If they manage to make it a rule to present well-thought-out election manifestos, it will transform the election culture.

Manifestos would make it possible for political parties to focus more on selling their own plans to make things better instead of using such negative practices as slandering the candidates of their rival parties.

To change Korea’s election culture, voters should step up pressure on political parties to formulate a manifesto for each election. Political parties should announce their manifestos long before elections so that voters can examine and compare them.