Ruling party prioritizes election pledges for provincial regions

The ruling Saenuri Party made a priority list for its 106 presidential election pledges for metropolitan and provincial regions 11 months ahead of next year’s local elections, it was confirmed on Sunday.

The party is believed to have taken the measure to pressure the government to deliver on its presidential election pledges 100 percent ahead of the local elections. The Saenuri Party already urged the Strategy and Finance Ministry to implement the pledges the ruling camp had made during the presidential election.

The Dong-A Ilbo exclusively acquired a report on “progress of major election pledges in order of priority for the 16 metropolitan and provincial governments.” The report ranks the election pledges in order of priority for the 16 metropolitan and provincial governments including Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, Busan, Gwangju, and Daejeon. Projects costing massive amounts of investments are topping the list for most regions. The election pledges for metropolitan and provincial regions should be reflected on the state finance management plan from this year to 2017. Projects should be drastically curtailed if ways to mobilize the necessary budget are lacking, but none of the election pledges have been excluded from the list.

As for the South Chungcheong Province and Sejong Special Self-Governing City, where the ruling and opposition parties will likely stage the fiercest race in next year’s local elections, the top four projects in the list are “assistance to the development of a site to which the South Chungcheong provincial government office will be relocated, the construction of Chungcheong inland area expressway (Second Seohaean Expressway), and the construction of the fifth east-west expressway (Boryeong – Uljin), projects that are closed linked to money.

As for the Daegu metropolitan region, President Park Geun-hye’s political base, the top five in the list are the construction of a national high-tech medical hub, the construction of a metropolitan transportation network for the Daegu region, the development of a site to which the North Gyeongsang provincial government office will be relocated, the completion of the 88 Olympic Expressway in line with schedule, and the relocation of K2 military airport, all of which require massive amounts of budget.

When the government announced a plan to implement President Park’s 106 presidential election pledges for local regions on Friday, it estimated that the projects will cost an astronomical amount of 124 trillion won (109 billion U.S. dollars) in total. But the report drafted by the Saenuri Party contained no explanations about sources of budget for individual projects, and total amounts of funds required by the year.

On July 17, the ruling party`s special committee on the implantation of election pledges for local regions will hold a first meeting, which will be also attended by ministers of related ministries. Rep. Chung Byung-gook, chairman of the special committee, told The Dong-A Ilbo on the phone, “We will hand over the report prepared by the party to the government, and hear about feasibility of the pledges.”