Rival parties face uphill battle in Wednesday's by-elections

SEOUL, April 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's rival parties on Tuesday staged
last-minute campaigns to woo voters in Wednesday's parliamentary by-elections,
the first nationwide election since the inauguration of President Lee Myung-bak
last year.
The by-elections will be held in five districts nationwide to fill parliamentary
vacancies created by the disqualification of lawmakers convicted of election law
violations in the April 2008 general elections.
Results of the by-elections are expected to serve as a crucial litmus test of
public sentiment towards the conservative Lee administration anxious to garner
stronger public support for its drive to reform the public sector and revitalize
the sagging economy.
The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) is aiming to win three of the five seats at
stake in order to win stronger popular support for its policy efforts to reform
and revive the economy. The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) is urging
voters to punish the Lee administration and the GNP for what it calls a string of
"policy failures."
Observers are keeping particularly close tabs on a district in Bupyeong, west of
Seoul, where the GNP's Lee Jae-hoon, former vice minister of knowledge economy,
and DP's Hong Young-pyo, formerly labor activist and secretary to prime minister,
were running a tight race.
In two districts of southeastern Gyeongsang Province, a region traditionally
favorable to the conservative camp, GNP candidates are competing closely against
independent and minority-party candidates.
Likewise, in two districts of Jeonju, which belongs to southwest Jeolla Province,
a traditional stronghold of the DP, candidates from the main opposition party are
facing an uphill battle against their independent rivals.
Political observers forecast that the by-election outcome will also help reshape
power structures within the leadership of the rival parties.
The Gyeongju district of North Gyeongsang Province is marked by internal GNP
strife, as candidate Jeong Jong-bok, known as a confidant of President Lee, is
strongly challenged by independent candidate Chung Soo-sung, aligned with former
GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye.
In a Ulsan district, a progressive minority party candidate strongly supported by
blue-collar workers, the majority of the industrial city's population, is posing
a serious threat to GNP candidate Park Dae-dong. Two minority and pro-labor
parties -- the Democratic Labor Party and the New Progressive Party -- recently
formed an alliance and put up a single candidate, Cho Seung-soo, against the GNP.
Another candidate fielded by the DP in the Deokjin district of Jeonju has been
dwarfed by independent Chung Dong-young, a former presidential candidate who
recently bolted from the DP to run independently. In nearby Wansan district, also
in Jeonju, independent candidate Shin Gunn, a former chief of the National
Intelligence Service now aligned with Chung, has gradually gained ground on DP
candidate Lee Kwang-cheol.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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