April Is the Month of Primaries for Both the Ruling and Opposition Camps

Parties of both the ruling and opposition camps are heating up as April primary season begins in earnest. It is expected that April will be `the month of primaries` since not only the Grand National Party (GNP) starts circuit primaries for presidential candidate selection with citizens’ participation as it is already in progress with the New Millennium Democratic Party (NMDP), but also regional primaries for selecting gubernatorial candidates begin in the month.

▽The NMDP〓It is expected that three round primaries in Taegu, Incheon, and Kyoungbuk on April 5, 6, and 7 between Yi In-Jae and No Mu-Hyeon will decide who takes the front-runner’s position, forming the climax of the presidential primary. Next, the presidential candidate of the NMDP will be chosen on April 27 as the primaries of Pusan, Kyounggi, and Seoul are going to be held. Selecting processes for metropolitan mayoral candidates, which have been so far ignored due to the presidential primary, are to be completed till early May. On April 2, the NMDP primary for Seoul mayor candidate is scheduled to take place, and also the primary for Incheon metropolitan mayor candidate will be held on April 24.

Additionally, the candidate registration for the party’s supreme leadership begins on April 7 and 8, which will surely ignite fierce election campaigns to control party leadership.

▽The GNP〓President Yi Hoe-Chang and Representative Yi Bu-Yeong are expected to hold press conferences to launch presidential primary campaigns, also it is known that Representative Kim Hong-Sin will declare his candidacy for GNP presidential primary when he faces his support group. A certain segment of the party has voiced to delay the party candidate registration scheduled on April 4 and 5 so as to induce the participation of Representative Kim Duk-Yeoung or even Park Keun-Hae who has defected the party. The GNP will execute the presidential primary as fifty thousand citizens participate in, beginning from Incheon on April 13. Primaries for provincial governors and mayors are also heating up. Currently the five regions among 16 provinces and cities including Ulsan (April 1), Daejeon (April 3), Daegu (April 8), Pusan (April 10), and Incheon (April 16) have fixed their primary schedules, and the other 11 regions are going to select a single candidate or have not yet decided on groups of party candidates.

The first region where the regional primary was held, Ulsan, selected Park Maeng-Woo (former Director of the Construction and Transportation Bureau of the Ulsan Municipal Office) as the mayoral candidate. Park received 602 ballot cast while Kang Gil-Bu(former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation) received 500 and Park Jeong-Geun(former Judicial Counselor of the Ministry of Defense) received 19 ballots cast. Additionally, former Representative Yi Myoung-Park will be selected as the GNP candidate for Seoul Mayor in a gathering to be held on April 4

In-Soo Song issong@donga.com · Young-Chan Yoon yyc11@donga.com