GNP seeks to enlist Rep. Park Geun-hye to support standard-bearer Na


The opposition political bloc will choose a unified candidate on Monday for the upcoming Seoul mayoral by-election to boost their efforts to win in the major conservative-liberal showdown.

After the candidate selection, its fight to win against Grand National Party standard-bearer Na Kyung-won in the Oct. 26 vote will intensify as the race is considered crucial to turn the political pendulum in its favor ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections next year.

The opposition groups will unify their candidacy after tallying up the scores received through three methods ― a jury evaluation, an opinion poll and a direct vote by registered citizens.

The jury outcome, which comprises 30 percent of the total score, has already been disclosed after a nationally televised debate on Sept. 30.

Civil society candidate Park Won-soon garnered 54.5 percent of juror support while Rep. Park Young-sun of the main opposition Democratic Party trailed with 44.1 percent. Choi Gyu-yeop of the Democratic Labor Party gained only 1.5 percent.

On Monday, the outcome of the opinion survey ― accounting for 30 percent of the total score ― will be unveiled while the direct poll where about 60,000 registered citizens are to participate will take place at Jangchung Gymnasium in central Seoul.

Civil activist and lawyer Park Won-soon, who has emerged as a formidable candidate amid widespread public disenchantment with established politicians, is confident of his victory based on his lead in most opinion polls.

But the DP candidate also claims that she is catching up with Park and will represent the opposition camp in the end, stressing that the mayor of the nation’s capital needs to have the support of a major political party.

Political watchers believe Park Won-soon could gain more through the opinion poll by receiving more backing from those in their 20s and 30s. Voters in those age groups have sought an alternative to the existing political machines mired in wasteful partisan disputes at the expense of the public.

But they said that the race will still be neck-and-neck as Park Young-sun could benefit more through a direct citizen vote on the back of her party’s large organizational support.

In a recent survey, Park Won-soon was leading Na of the GNP by nearly 20 percentage points. Conservative politicians and media outlets have started to attack him by raising a series of corruption allegations, including that he has taken large sums of corporate donations for his charitable foundation.

Meanwhile, GNP campaigners have been striving to bring the ruling party’s heavyweight Rep. Park Geun-hye to the forefront to support Na.

However, Park, the party’s leading presidential hopeful, has remained low-key. One of the reasons for that is the party has yet to decide on its official stance regarding welfare policies, which could conflict with her own and hamper her presidential bid.

Aware of this, the party’s policy-making body is seeking to finalize its welfare stance sometime this week and quickly confirm it at a general meeting of its lawmakers so that it can put Park, dubbed “Queen of Elections,” at the vanguard of the “trans-factional” campaign.

The GNP has been making strenuous efforts to retain the mayoral post, which its member Oh Se-hoon won for the two consecutive terms while the DP has sought to secure the seat with a focus on delivering a “judgment” of the ruling camp.

The mayoral race has drawn keener public attention than ever as it could be an unprecedented competition between the two female candidates from each major party, or between a ruling party candidate and a civil society leader.

There is also a possibility that after winning unified candidacy, Park Won-soon could join the DP, which continues to woo him.

After registering as official candidates with the election watchdog between Thursday and Friday, the official campaign will begin next Thursday.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)