Election fever is gripping the nation, as official campaigning for the April 11 parliamentary election has started. Some 920 candidates will campaign boisterously in 246 electoral districts across the nation for 13 days from Thursday to the eve of polling.
The temperature of the election fever is unusually high. One indication is the expected high voter turnout. According to a recent survey conducted by the National Election Commission, 56.9 percent of the respondents said they would “definitely” vote this time. The ratio is 5 percentage points higher compared with the previous parliamentary election four years ago.
Another indication may be the large number of political parties seeking parliamentary presence through the proportional representation system, which offers a total of 54 seats. The election watchdog said 20 parties have submitted their slate of candidates, an increase of five from the 15 in the previous election.
One reason for the heightened temperature is that the forthcoming general election is the precursor to the December presidential poll. Pundits say the sentiment expressed in April will be not much different from that to be voiced eight months later. Hence political parties are pulling out all the stops to woo voters in this poll.
Party rivalry is heating up also because many districts are closely contested, making it difficult to predict the election outcome. Initially, the main opposition Democratic United Party was seen to have secured a solid advantage by forming a nationwide electoral alliance with the minor opposition United Progressive Party.
Yet the party has lost much of its advantage, while the ruling Saenuri Party has managed to recover its support base. Many political analysts predict that they will each win about 130 seats, including their share of the proportional representation seats. Some forecast that the DUP will emerge as the largest party by winning five to 10 more seats than the ruling party.
Yet these forecasts are meaningless as many things can happen during the remainder of the campaign period. Ten days is a long time in politics, especially in elections. One characteristic of parliamentary elections in Korea is that their outcomes are highly unpredictable.
But one thing is certain ― major political parties will ratchet up efforts to get a larger share of the 300 parliamentary seats. In so doing, they are highly likely to employ negative campaign tactics to energize their support base.
Political parties have already framed the April poll based on their negative campaign strategies. For instance, the DUP-UPP alliance has defined the election as a referendum on the incumbent government and the Saenuri Party.
Accusing President Lee Myung-bak and Saenuri leader Park Geun-hye for ruining people’s livelihoods, the two parties call on voters to render judgment on them. They also seek to mobilize disgruntled young voters, saying that the April poll offers them an opportunity to replace the current government.
In contrast, the Saenuri Party terms this election as a contest between a future-oriented political force and an unreliable group preoccupied with the past. While trying to distance itself from the discredited current administration, it condemns the DUP for saying one thing today and another tomorrow and sticking to worn-out ideologies that hurt national interests.
As the campaign heats up, parties and candidates will step up their rhetoric. In hotly contested districts, candidates could be tempted to use all means possible, including slander. The temptation to use illegal measures such as defamation has increased with the emergence of social networking services, which can spread false information about rivals at lightning speed.
All this suggests the need for the election watchdog to step up monitoring of campaign activities. The NEC has already referred 154 election law breaches to the prosecution, a 40 percent increase from four years ago.
The large figure suggests that many reelections will be held after the poll. Reelections should be prevented, as they are a waste of taxpayers’ money. For this, the watchdog needs to strongly admonish political parties and candidates to abide by the law and stage a more civil campaign.
Voters, for their part, need to scrutinize candidates before going to the polls. To ensure a fair and clean election, law-enforcement agencies also need to crack down on illegal campaigning.
