Korea`s ad-lib pledges approach vs. US` `perfect` campaigns

On April 10 this year, U.S. presidential race turned into a one-on-one competition between the Democratic candidate Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney after former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum dropped out of the race about 210 days before Election Day.

In mid-May, which also marked about 210 days to go before Korea’s presidential election, the ruling Saenuri Party and its main opposition rival Democratic United Party were preparing their respective national conventions to replace their leadership after the April 11 parliamentary elections. Hwang Woo-yea was elected chairman of the ruling party with the support from presidential candidate Park Geun-hye. The main opposition party tapped as its head Lee Hae-chan, a former prime minister.

In late September, or 47 days before the U.S. election, Obama and Romney began to prepare for three rounds of TV debates that could determine their fates despite their continued campaigns.

On Friday, with 47 days before the election in Korea, Saenuri`s Park, the main opposition party`s candidate Moon Jae-in and independent runner Ahn Cheol-soo debated whether to hold debates hosted by media in addition to those arranged by the National Election Commission.

The presidential races in the U.S. and Korea are just about 40 days apart but very different in characteristics. Since Ahn finally announced his candidacy after more than a year of speculation, the game of unifying the opposition runner has lingered.

In addition, criticism of Park’s statements about her late father’s dictatorial rule of the country has dominated the race. Voters thus have nothing else to do but count down the number of days before the election without minimum standards with which to decide whom to vote for, not to mention comparing their policy pledges.

Despite just 46 days left before the election, none of the three candidates in Korea have presented comprehensive policy pledges covering all areas of national affairs. In contrast, Obama and Romney made their proposals for the economy, foreign affairs, welfare, finance, education and other areas with more than 60 days to spare.

The American candidates gave differentiated pledges in major areas, enabling voters to discern each candidate just by looking at a list of pledges. In Korea, however, each candidate is trying to make impromptu promises, without answering how to foot the bill.

“It`s hard to believe that this presidential election is taking place in a country that has the world’s 11th-largest economy and hosted the G-20 summit,” said Kim Yong-cheol, a public administration professor at Pusan National University. “The candidates should stop their political engineering behavior and present voters with proper standards for judgment."

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