Tight races forecast in Busan, Chungju

Local by-elections hotly contested in prelude to major elections next year


The Seoul mayoral contest, where independent Park Won-soon and the ruling Grand National Party’s Na Kyung-won are running a tight race, is by far the most intense and important in Wednesday’s by-elections.

But several provincial races are being tightly contested by rival political forces, as their results are seen as a barometer of regional sentiment ahead of crucial parliamentary and presidential elections next year.

The Oct. 26 poll will pick 11 city, ward and county heads, and dozens of local assembly members in 42 electoral districts nationwide.

In Busan, voters will pick the head of Donggu Office, or East Ward.

The race has become a two-way competition between Jung Young-seok of the ruling Grand National Party and Lee Hae-sung of the main opposition Democratic Party, after other liberal-minded opposition candidates withdrew, throwing their support behind. 

Polls show that the two are neck-and-neck race.

Heavyweight politicians from the rival parties are rushing to help their candidates.

On the opposition side, former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook and Rep. Park Ji-won visited Busan on Sunday to join Lee for canvassing in major city centers. A day earlier, Moon Jae-in, late President Roh Moo-hyun’s chief secretary, now considered as a potential presidential candidate of the liberal forces and Sohn Hak-kyu, DP chairman and another presidential aspirant, had turned up in support of Lee.

Park Geun-hye, former chairman of GNP who is leading all potential presidential contenders in polls, visited the city earlier in the month to drum up support for the GNP candidate.

Busan, the country’s second-largest city after Seoul, had traditionally been a conservative stronghold. That, however, has been changing, amid growing public disenchantment with the ruling bloc’s polices for the region, which the DP is trying to capitalize on at the upcoming by-elections.

“We think the race is tight, but our candidate is keeping a slight lead,” said GNP Rep. Yoo Ki-june, who leads the party’s taskforce for Busan elections. DP officials, however, say their candidate is leading.

In Chungcheong, two mayoral contests are closely followed.

In the race to become the mayor of Chungju, the GNP has put up former vice home minister Lee Jong-bae as its candidate against former two-term lawmaker Park Sang-gyu of the DP. Two former GNP members are running as independent candidates.

In the city of Seosan, five candidates are competing and four of them claim to be in the lead. They are candidates from GNP, DP, far-right minority Liberty Forward Party and a maverick.

“We believe the voters will choose the Liberal Forward Party, particularly as we have successfully completed a merger with People First Party,” a LFP spokesperson said. Chungcheong was the main support base of the PFP.

In Inje, Gangwon Province, Lee Soon-seon, a DP candidate, is claiming a lead over Choi Sang-gi, a GNP candidate and two others.

In Daegu, at least two conservative candidates claim that they have the full support of Park Geun-hye, mindful of the city’s overwhelming support for the presidential candidate.

In Seoul, the city’s northwestern ward of Yangcheon will elect a new ward chief. The GNP is trying to retake the ward office after it lost to the DP in the previous local election. Choo Jae-yup, the GNP candidate and two-term ward chief, is seen leading DP candidate Kim Soo-young, the wife of the former ward chief Lee Jae-hak, whose election victory was annulled after conviction of election law violations last June.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)