Presidential Race in Dead Heat

With the two leading presidential candidates, Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Hoi-chang, in neck-to-neck competition, the Democratic Millennium Party and the opposition Grand National Party are rushing to claim a lead in the ongoing presidential race.

Entering the 8th day of campaign, DMP emphasized that Roh is leading ahead Lee by a large margin, while GNP argued Lee is almost closing on Roh and even taking back the lead in some areas.

GNP insisted that the bubble of Roh’s popularity, which shot up after the successful consolidation of candidacy with National Alliance21’s Chung Mong-joon, is bursting, adding that it is mobilizing its regional offices nationwide to drum up support for Lee.

˝The gap between the two candidates, once widened to a double-digit number after the consolidation of candidacy, has been narrowed down significantly and is now within a margin of errors,˝ said an official at the opposition party. ˝Among those saying they are determined to cast their votes, Lee is leading Roh by a slight margin, and we are sure that the entire picture will also change in favor of Lee over this weekend.˝

MDP said that despite the narrowed margin, Roh is still taking a distant lead with supporters increasingly growing attached to Roh.

˝The gap between Roh and Lee was within a margin of errors last weekend, but it has been widened again since early this week, ˝ an MDP official emphasized.

˝In particular, among those who answered they would go to the polls, Roh is leading ahead of Lee by a slight margin. In general, supporters of Roh increasingly feel attached to their candidate,˝ he added.

The two camps are upping their antes on voters in their 40s and the Pusan and Kyungnam-do, or so-called PK, region and Chungcheong region, which they see will become key battlegrounds.

Yeon-Wook Jung Jeong-Hun Kim jyw11@donga.com jnghn@donga.com