Candidates’ Efforts to Woo as Many Voters as Possible at Last Minute

With two days to go before the presidential election, on Dec. 17, Lee Hoi-chang, presidential candidate of the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) and his rival of the pro-government Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), Roh moo-hyun, made all-out efforts to woo undecided voters, holding news conferences respectively.

At a news conference held at the South Chungcheong provincial government office, Mr. Lee criticized Mr. Roh for his campaign pledge to relocate the nation’s administrative capital to this area, saying that "The relocation plan doesn’t make sense and it will turn Chungcheong provinces into an object of speculation." He said that the current government had deceived the public twice with promises on parliamentary cabinet system and write-off of farmers’ debts and now it tries to deceive one more time with the relocation pledge.

Instead, He announced a "10-point campaign pledge to develop Chungcheong provinces," which included turning this area into a hub for science and technology by relocating the science and technology ministry and the information and communications ministry to this region. In this pledge, he also promised to create an ecological park at Cheong Nam Dae, a presidential retreat in North Chungcheong province, construct a Disneyland complex on Anmyoendo and build a Korean version of Universal Studio in North Chungcheong province.

With respect to the decision of Kim Jong-pil, head of the United Liberal Democrats, not to endorse any candidate, Mr. Lee said, "I made a promise to become a national leader to bring stability and hopes to people to him and I believe he thinks the same way." And Mr. Lee also said that at a time when the South Korean government, which was built based on toil and moil, could collapse at the hands of a radical faction, the nation really is in desperate need of statesmanship of veteran statesmen.

Before the new conference on that day Mr. Lee visited a police branch office in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul and said that to some extent, police’ investigative right should be protected. He made a promise to replace riot police with regular police officers and recruit more female officers.

At another press conference at the GNP headquarters, Park Geun-hye, the daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee and co-leader of the election preparation committee of the GNP, decried that Mr. Roh was impetuous in his promise to complete the relocation within his term of office, saying it took four years her father just to review the plan.

At a news conference held in his party building, for his part, Mr. Roh said, "those who are responsible for corruption and mismanagement of the incumbent Kim government will be held accountable" and that he would ensure "they will not participate in a new government."

He also reiterated, "Upon the moment of winning the election, I will reform the MDP so as to produce a tangible result before the inauguration. I could consider replacing the MDP with a new party or create a new party and I bring figures from all over the country into the new fold to eradicate regionalism."

When asked if he is considering a national government, he replied, "I don’t rule out the possibility but I don’t think of it either. I just tried to soothe concerns that regardless of who comes to power, the incoming government will not get nationwide support."

He added, "When I become President, I will conduct a reform in choosing cabinet members, by appointing talented figures regardless of their hometown to root out favoritism, cronyism and regionalism. And even those who can take credit for their contribution to the campaign will not be appointed to important posts for that reason."

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