Seoul Mayoral Race Turning Negative

“This is not an attack, but an effort to verify the candidate.”

In a press briefing on May 7 at the ruling Uri Party’s headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Oh Young-sik, the spokesperson of the party’s election polling committee for its Seoul mayor candidate, Kang Geum-sil, raised the issue of Oh Se-hun, the major opposition Grand National Party’s (GNP) candidate for Seoul mayor, regarding his electoral pledge to “improve the quality of air in the Seoul metropolitan area.”

Criticizing the GNP candidate’s remark on May 5 in a televised debate that “regardless of how much money he has, anyone who feels stressed in his daily life is an ordinary citizen,” the committee spokesperson Oh asked, “Can international billionaires like Bill Gates, Lee Kun-hee and Chung Mong-koo be called representative ordinary citizens because they also go through a lot of stress?”

Some criticized the ruling party’s move as obsessively “finding fault” with its counterparts rather than “selling” its own strengths. A senior official at Kang’s electoral polling committee, however, said they would not care, adding, “At a time when even the traditional supporters are deserting the Uri Party, we cannot afford to sit back and just be idle.”

In a press conference on May 5, Uri Party spokesperson Woo Sang-ho attacked GNP candidate Oh based on every single detail of his past record. In the face of criticism that his acts run against the pledge to refrain from “negative election campaigning,” he refuted this by saying, “It is not a negative campaign but the true element of an election to verify the policies, philosophy and policy implementation capabilities of a candidate for government office.”

In the afternoon of May 7 in the SK Officetel building in Anguk-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Kang held a launching ceremony of a large-scale electoral polling committee jointly chaired by lawmakers Yoo In-tae, Lee Mi-kyung and Lee Gye-an and former Seoul educational superintendent Yoo In-jong.

taewon_ha@donga.com