Presidential Runners in High Gear for Election

Presidential candidates including Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party (GNP) and Roh Mo-hyun of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) registered yesterday to the National Election Commission (NEC), beginning their 22-day official campaigns.

Other candidates such as Lee Han-dong of the Hanaro National Unity, Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party, Kim Young-gyu of the Social Party and independent Chang Se-dong also joined the presidential race. Therefore the number of presidential candidates reached 6.

Lee Hoi-chang said at the party headquarters that at this presidential election, the Kim Dae-jung government and the MDP could not avoid the stern judgment from the public and that this elections would be the showdown between the successor of the corrupt government and the judge of the corrupt government, and between a radical corrupt force and a moderate reformist force. He added that he would explore a realistic power regime and revise the Constitution based on the public consensus.

After launching his first election campaign in the Jongmyo Park in Seoul, Lee went to Busan and Ulsan to make his election pitches.

Roh Moo-hyun of the MDP went on the stump in Busan, Taegu, Daejeon, Suwon and Seoul. In his first election campaign in Busan, Roh said? If I am elected, the new government will be neither the successor of the Kim Dae-jung regime nor the regime biased to a specific region. The government will be the Roh-Moo-hyun government.?

Roh said in Daejeon? The GNP is so corrupt that the party spent the government budget for election campaign. Its presidential candidate is suspected to be involved in corruption scandals. We should root out the corrupt candidate first.?

Minor presidential candidates such as former premier Lee Han-dong, and labor party leader Kwon Young-ghil have begun their election campaigns in earnest.

Young-Chan Yoon yyc11@donga.com